New York puts $10 million into AI Jobs Institute to train 40,000

The AI Jobs Institute builds on an existing relationship between the state and Pursuit. When Hochul launched FutureWorks in March, Empire State Development named Pursuit the statewide lead for AI Prep for Jobs, a program to train 420 low-income New Yorkers through accelerated courses instead of degree programs. Pursuit, founded in 2012, spent most of its history training people for software jobs before replacing that curriculum about three years ago with a 630-hour AI course it updates every week; about 400 to 500 people have gone through the new program, a count that includes both the full course and shorter workshops.

The hub opens into a tech labor market that has shifted toward New York. Much of the metro area's growth in tech workers came from banks and other financial firms hiring AI talent, though the Bay Area still employs more AI specialists. At the same time, the entry-level jobs that once absorbed new tech workers are shrinking: Census Bureau research shows that since ChatGPT's release, graduates of AI-exposed majors such as computer science have been landing fewer jobs and lower pay, often in retail and food service, and entry-level postings in AI-exposed fields increasingly ask for skills once expected only of experienced workers.

The institute also plans to work with CUNY, which enrolls roughly 500,000 students, on programs such as add-on AI certificates. Pursuit trained 100 students this year at LaGuardia Community College, across the street from the new site, and plans to expand that partnership. Former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will chair the institute's national advisory council, whose members include Leah Belsky, OpenAI's head of education; Eleanor Dorfman, Anthropic's head of industries, commercial sales and private equity; Maggie Cacioppo of Google.org; and CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez.