A National AI Workforce Initiative was joined by Connecticut. The news was how its own employees learned about it.
The way Connecticut employees found out about a program created especially to safeguard their futures is subtly instructive. Not at a town hall. not via their employer or union representative. The majority of them learned about it in the same way that most people do these days: by scrolling past a headline, most likely on their phone, in between other things.
Governor Ned Lamont declared on June 29 that Connecticut would become a member of RAISE US, a recently established nonprofit organization that aims to assist educators, employers, and employees in adjusting to an artificial intelligence-driven economy. The group was co-founded by former U.S. The pairing of former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a Democrat and a Republican, is noteworthy. Connecticut became the first state to join the partnership, along with Arkansas, Maryland, and Utah. A press release and well-crafted quotes accompanied the announcement. The majority of the workers it was intended to assist found out about it later.
It’s not a pessimistic interpretation. It’s only the pattern. It’s also important to note that the entire premise of RAISE US is that previous failures to prepare American workers for economic disruption weren’t just economic failures; rather, they were failures of coordination, communication, and treating workers as afterthoughts in systems that were supposedly created for their benefit.
With a list of anchor partners that reads like a who’s-who of the AI economy, including Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, Bank of America, General Motors, and others, RAISE US is launching with over $500 million. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and economists David Autor and Raj Chetty make up the advisory board. It’s a serious procedure. The stakes are clear, according to Raimondo, who spent years influencing trade and technology policy at the federal level: “If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything. We’ll have automated our own decline.”
That’s a direct statement. It’s important because there hasn’t been much honesty in the public discourse surrounding AI displacement. According to an April analysis by the Boston Consulting Group, up to 25 million jobs could be eliminated in the next five years as AI transforms about half of American jobs. Around the same time, Goldman Sachs released a comparable estimate, predicting that a quarter of all American work hours might eventually be automated. These are no longer fringe projections. They are appearing in popular policy documents and being referenced in press releases from governors.
For its part, Connecticut has been progressing more quickly than many other states. The state has been operating its Tech Talent Accelerator since 2022; it is currently in its third phase, with seven colleges and twelve business partners working to integrate AI competencies into everything from cybersecurity degrees to nursing education. Earlier this year, Governor Lamont signed legislation establishing new workforce training programs linked to AI skills. Almost 11,000 job postings in Connecticut have called for AI skills since last August. That represents a 40% increase over the previous year. AI skills are now required for one out of every 52 jobs in the state. The numbers are changing quickly.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to use statistics to bridge the gap between policy momentum and lived experience. When Holcomb stated that this work is carried out at the state level in collaboration with employers rather than by directives from Washington, he put it succinctly. That’s most likely correct. However, it takes time for employer partnerships built around retraining pipelines, tax breaks, and credential programs to reach the factory floor, the trucking depot, or the mid-career office worker wondering if their job will remain the same in three years.
As you watch all of this happen, you get the impression that while the machinery is still catching up, the urgency is real. Raimondo herself stated that she doesn’t anticipate significant action from Congress anytime soon, which is one of the reasons the state-level strategy is important—successful trials in states like Connecticut may eventually influence federal policy. That might be the most practical course of action. Additionally, workers are already navigating an economy that feels less predictable than it did even a few years ago, so it’s a lot to ask.
The initiative is sincere. There is a real need. When the press releases run out, the question is whether the people it is intended to assist will feel that way.
