Exploring AI Opportunities, Impacts in the Workforce, Labor Markets
In an action-packed two weeks in the Bay Area Council’s world of workforce, the AI for All program announced new partnerships, the team convened the Healthcare x Workforce working group at Samuel Merrit University, and the Q3 Workforce of the Future Committee met to discuss the impact of AI on the labor market.
The Bay Area Council was honored to follow SFSU President Lynn Mahoney in kicking off the Google-sponsored student AI solutions hackathon as part of SF Tech Week. This event provided an opportunity for the 250 student attendees to apply their classroom skills to a real-world AI problem. As the demand for AI skills in entry-level jobs across sectors surges, opportunities to improve student exposure to AI applications can support positive job outcomes.
At Oakland Tech Week, in a full circle moment, former Mayor Libby Schaaf joined Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Councilmember Rowena Brown to share our new AI for All collaboration with the Oakland Fund and Councilmember Brown’s Responsible AI Activation Zones (RAIZ), which provides grants to Northeastern University Oakland, the Unity Council, and Laney College to support community-driven AI education and programming. The Bay Area Council will be working with these community partners to bring the free AI literacy courses under ‘AI for All’ to Oakland residents.
While AI for All continues to expand its footprint into Oakland and San Francisco, existing efforts in San Jose remain underway. On November 6, AI for All partners, including Google, the City of San Jose’s Mayor’s Office, and San Jose Public Library, are co-hosting a free, in-person workshop to teach small businesses how they may start using AI to grow their business. Grow with Google’s San José Small Business Workshop | Events | San José Public Library
The workforce team’s momentum didn’t stop there – on September 23 the Bay Area Council convened a small, focused working group comprised of representatives from the Bay Area’s largest healthcare employers. This group is self-tasked with building solutions across their systems that address a shared and growing regional demand for healthcare talent. Additionally, the group will begin to examine which skills and job roles may be expected to shift with growing usage of AI tools in diagnostics, administrative workflows, and patient support. The following week, the Council continued conversations around the impact of AI at their Q3 Workforce of the Future Committee meeting. The 40+ attendees were joined by Dr. Hyman and Dr. Chandar from the California Policy Lab and Stanford Digital Economy Lab, who each shared labor market dynamics for high-AI-exposed jobs. While they find no overall impact across California, they do report small decreases in employment for entry-level workers and tech workers specifically for jobs with higher exposures to AI. Their findings sparked a conversation on how educators can best equip students with AI proficiencies.
