"I just genuinely believe that there is [a pathway to entrepreneurship], and I believe it is the coworking industry. I believe we are perfectly positioned to support entrepreneurs in starting and growing businesses. It's just a lot of people don't know that we exist."

This conversation began with a two-minute video that sparked the attention of the coworking community.

Stacey Sheppard, who runs a coworking space for female entrepreneurs in rural Devon, posted a call to arms that cut straight through the noise: local councils are spending thousands on business boot camps whilst ignoring the coworking spaces already doing this work in their communities.

But Stacey's story runs deeper than frustrated civic policy. She's a content creator whose 20-year writing career has been systematically eroded by AI since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

Instead of retreating, she's become the person her coworking community relies on to make sense of the disruption. She spends "ridiculous amounts of time" hunting down business support programmes, decoding AI courses, and connecting her members to resources they never knew existed.

The timing couldn't be more urgent. Graduates are leaving university with accountancy degrees only to discover that accountants are "numbered" because AI handles data better than humans. The education system isn't working. Entry-level jobs are disappearing. The AI gender gap is widening—37% of women versus 50% of men are using AI tools that will reshape every industry.

Meanwhile, councils run six-week boot camps that inundate aspiring entrepreneurs with enormous amounts of information, then leave them to implement everything on their own.

* No accountability.

* No ongoing support.

* No community to catch them when they stumble.

Stacey sees coworking spaces as the missing infrastructure. Not just hot desks and decent coffee, but the daily proximity that transforms careers. The casual conversation that reveals funding opportunities.

The accountability that happens when someone asks, "How's that website coming along?" Knowledge sharing means you don't have to figure out AI, WordPress, or local business rates by yourself.

Her coworking space, The Tribe, serves women in business in the Totnes area. Many are "really hard-working mums" running their own enterprises who can't take on learning AI alongside everything else.

So Stacey does the courses, reads the reports, and filters what they need to know. One member told her: "I'm actually not that worried about it, Stacey, because I know that you're on the case."

This is civic infrastructure disguised as workspace rental. When a factory opens, it promises 200 jobs. When it closes to secure a better deal elsewhere, 200 jobs are lost.

Coworking spaces create sustainable local employment that adapts to changing work needs. They're economic anchors that keep revenue, talent, and innovation in the community.

But there's no mechanism to connect university graduates to their local coworking ecosystem. No pathway from government-funded business support to the spaces where real entrepreneurship happens daily.

Councils in London boroughs with the highest business registrations struggle to provide basic coworking infrastructure, while others, such as Barking, get ahead of the curve.

The conversation extends beyond policy into the gendered reality of technological disruption. AI systems are built predominantly by men, trained on data that doesn't represent how women experience the world.

Stacey watched women drop off AI courses that were heavy on tech jargon and light on accessibility. The expertise was shared in ways that excluded the very people who need these tools most.

For coworking operators reading this, Stacey's challenge is clear: stop preaching to the converted. Find examples of councils working effectively with coworking spaces. Share success stories that other local authorities can replicate and learn from. Make noise about the economic infrastructure you're already providing.

The disruption is here. The crisis Stacey predicted is unfolding across industries, communities, and careers.

But the solution might be simpler than anyone imagined: recognise and resource the spaces where people already gather to figure out how to how to work together.

Timeline Highlights

[01:18 ] "We can talk more about this in the Unreasonable Connection event... This is exactly the conversation we want to get people having"

[02:03 ] "I run a coworking space for women in business and female entrepreneurs in rural Devon... slowly moving into helping small businesses and solopreneurs use AI in their business"

[04:45 ] "Back in 2022, it had slowly eroded everything I've built and created. But because of what I do in the coworking industry, I haven't felt alone in that"

[06:58 ] "I spend ridiculous amounts of time finding out about all of the business support that is available... most of them really haven't got a clue that this is happening"

[08:53 ] "The problem is they finish after six weeks or eight weeks or twelve weeks... Then you're left with enormous amounts of information... Then the course ends and you're out on your own again"

[10:31 ] "It just feels so disjointed that the impact of that investment from government and local councils could be amplified so much more if we just all work together"

[12:56 ] "One of my members said to me... I'm actually not that worried about it, Stacey, because I know that you're on the case and you're learning it for us"

[15:44 ] "The AI gender gap is already quite massive. The last stat I read was something like 37% of women were using it compared to 50% of men"

[17:06 ] "It would be so much more valuable, and it would really amplify the impact of any investment in business support if we just all work together"

[21:10 ] "We've got this happening in industries all over the country where graduates are coming out and there just aren't the entry-level jobs to go to"

[24:56 ] "Your local coworking space is there either 24/7 or Monday to Friday... Whenever you need that support, it's there in the same location, day after day after day"

[29:47 ] "Unless we get on board with it, it's just going to leave us behind. It scares me"

[31:42 ] "A lot of women were on the call at the beginning. I could watch them slowly drop off throughout the duration of the course"

[35:27 ] "A lot of the workshops and courses lose people so quickly because it's new for so many people and it's mind-blowing"

[39:26 ] "If we could come together as an industry and really make some noise and really try to move this forward a bit, because I think we just need this"

The Corporate Takeover Nobody Talks About

Stacey's 20-year content creation career didn't just change—it was systematically dismantled. "Back in 2022, it had slowly eroded everything I'd built and created," she explains, describing how AI tools began replacing the writing and digital marketing work she'd spent decades developing.

But rather than becoming another casualty of technological disruption, her positioning in coworking gave her something most freelancers don't have: a community to navigate the crisis with.

This isn't just about one person's career pivot. Graduates with accountancy degrees from the University of Exeter are discovering that their "guaranteed" jobs have evaporated because "accountants are numbered"—AI handles data processing more efficiently than humans.

The pattern repeats across industries: entry-level positions disappearing faster than companies can figure out how anyone becomes a manager without starting somewhere.

The economic disruption is already here, but it's disguised as individual career challenges rather than the systemic shift it actually represents.

Coworking operators see this daily—professionals arriving at their spaces after redundancies, career changes, or industries that no longer need their skills. The question isn't whether disruption is coming; it's whether communities will have the infrastructure to help people navigate it together.

Why Everything Feels So Polarised Right Now

The AI gender gap reveals something deeper than the adoption rates of technology. When 37% of women use AI compared to 50% of men, we're witnessing real-time economic marginalisation.

Stacey watched women "slowly drop off" AI courses throughout their duration, not because they lacked capability, but because the delivery was inaccessible to them. Tech jargon, assumptions about prior knowledge, and teaching methods that didn't meet women where they actually were.

"We have different barriers, different experiences, different perspectives," Stacey observes. "We just often learn differently." The systems being built to reshape work are primarily designed by men, trained on data that does not accurately represent how women experience the world. If 50% of the population doesn't engage with the tools reshaping their economic reality, the gap will compound across every sector.

But the issue extends beyond gender to class, geography, and access. The people most likely to be displaced by AI—freelancers, creatives, and administrative professionals—are often least equipped to navigate the learning curve of using it effectively. Meanwhile, the people building t