Every generation inherits a defining challenge that determines its economic future. The Industrial Revolution transformed agriculture into manufacturing. The electrical age created entirely new industries. The computer revolution redefined business. The Internet connected the world in ways once unimaginable. Today, artificial intelligence stands poised to reshape every aspect of our economy with a speed and scale unlike any technological transformation that has come before it.
The conversation surrounding artificial intelligence has focused largely on algorithms, computing power, and investment. Those are important discussions, but they miss the larger issue. Artificial intelligence is ultimately about people. Every breakthrough in AI still depends upon individuals who can imagine it, design it, build it, deploy it, secure it, regulate it, and use it responsibly. Technology may accelerate innovation, but people remain the engine of economic growth.
That reality presents America with both an extraordinary opportunity and an urgent challenge.
Employers across virtually every sector of the economy are investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Healthcare providers are integrating AI into diagnosis and patient care. Manufacturers are modernizing production through intelligent automation. Financial institutions are transforming decision-making with predictive analytics. Government agencies are adopting AI to improve public services. Energy companies, defense contractors, logistics providers, and educational institutions are all rethinking how work will be performed during the next decade.
Yet everywhere I travel, I hear the same concern.
Where will the workforce come from?
This is no longer simply a hiring question. It is a national competitiveness question. The organizations that succeed during the AI era will not necessarily be those with access to the most advanced technology. They will be those that develop the most capable workforce.
For generations, education has largely operated from the supply side. Colleges, universities, and training organizations developed programs based upon academic disciplines, graduated students, and then relied upon employers to absorb that talent. That model helped build the world's strongest economy, but artificial intelligence is changing the pace of workforce development. New occupations are emerging faster than traditional educational systems can redesign curriculum. Skills that were highly valued only a few years ago are already evolving, while entirely new competencies are becoming essential.
The future demands a different approach.
Education must become more responsive to employer demand. Workforce development must become more agile. Industry and education can no longer operate as parallel systems that occasionally intersect. They must become strategic partners working toward a common objective: preparing people for opportunities that are already taking shape across the American economy.
That is why I believe Maryland is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation.
Few states possess the combination of assets that Maryland enjoys. Within its borders are globally respected research universities, nationally recognized healthcare systems, federal laboratories, cybersecurity innovators, biotechnology companies, aerospace organizations, advanced manufacturers, defense contractors, and one of the nation's highest concentrations of scientists, engineers, and technology professionals. Maryland has spent decades building an innovation economy. The next step is ensuring that innovation is matched by an equally dynamic workforce strategy.
Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, the University of Maryland System, UMBC, Towson University, Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and Maryland's outstanding community colleges already educate the talent that powers many of America's most important industries. Working alongside employers, workforce organizations, and government, these institutions can help demonstrate what demand-driven education looks like in practice—an educational ecosystem that responds continuously to changing workforce requirements rather than reacting after the fact.
That vision has inspired the creation of AI NEXTGEN America.
For nearly fifty years, Career Communications Group has worked to connect talent with opportunity. Through our publications, conferences, career fairs, awards programs, and partnerships with industry, government, and higher education, we have helped hundreds of thousands of professionals advance their careers while assisting employers in identifying exceptional talent. We have celebrated achievement because achievement inspires the next generation. We have connected employers with professionals because opportunity changes lives.
Today, our mission is expanding.
AI NEXTGEN America represents the next evolution of Career Communications Group's commitment to workforce development. It is not designed simply as an annual conference. It is a national workforce platform that begins with employer demand and works backward to prepare talent for the jobs being created across the AI economy.
We begin by asking employers the questions that matter most. What occupations are emerging? Which skills are becoming essential? Where are the shortages? What certifications are most valuable? How should education and workforce development respond? Those answers become the foundation for collaboration among employers, universities, community colleges, workforce organizations, government agencies, and learners at every stage of their careers.
This demand-driven model reflects an important shift in how we think about workforce development. Success will no longer be measured only by the number of people trained. It will be measured by how effectively training aligns with employment, how quickly educational systems respond to changing industry requirements, and how successfully individuals transition into meaningful careers.
Those conversations will come together during the inaugural AI NEXTGEN America Conference & Futurist Awards, to be held October 9–10, 2026, at the Baltimore Convention Center.
The conference will bring together leaders from industry, government, education, workforce development, and the technology community to examine one of the defining questions of our time: How does America prepare its workforce for an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence?
Participants will explore workforce strategy, AI implementation, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, energy, healthcare, digital infrastructure, quantum technologies, robotics, and other emerging fields that are reshaping the nation's economy. Employers will engage directly with current and future talent. Educators will gain greater insight into evolving workforce requirements. Policymakers will participate in discussions about strengthening America's competitive position. The AI NEXTGEN America Futurist Awards will recognize individuals and organizations whose leadership is helping build the workforce and innovation ecosystem that our future demands.
Artificial intelligence will influence nearly every profession during the coming decades. Whether that transformation expands opportunity or widens inequality depends largely upon the decisions we make today. We can allow technology to outpace our workforce systems, or we can build stronger partnerships among employers, educators, government, and communities that prepare people for the future of work.
I have always believed that America's strength lies in its ability to educate, innovate, and create opportunity. That belief guided the founding of Career Communications Group nearly fifty years ago, and it continues to guide our work today. AI NEXTGEN America is an extension of that mission. It reflects our conviction that technological progress and workforce development must advance together, and that every community should have an opportunity to participate in the AI economy.
The work begins in Maryland because Maryland has the capacity to demonstrate what demand-driven workforce development can achieve. The impact, however, is intended for every state, every industry, and every community across our nation.
Building America's AI workforce is not the responsibility of government alone, nor industry alone, nor education alone. It is a shared national responsibility.
I invite you to join us in Baltimore on October 9–10, 2026, as we begin that work together.
AI NEXTGEN America Conference & Futurist Awards
October 9–10, 2026
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland
Building America's AI Workforce
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