Meeting the AI Workforce Challenge

Executive Summary

The AI transition is already reshaping the U.S. labor market. Since 2023, more than 27,000 layoffs have been directly attributed to AI adoption, with entry-level corporate roles and even programming jobs seeing historic declines. Younger workers face intensified competition for fewer openings, while leading AI developers forecast systems capable of surpassing human performance on most tasks within a few years. Early adopters of AI are already seeing fivefold increases in worker productivity and some businesses have restructured their operations to rely more on AI rather than on human labor.  Agentic AI will accelerate the pace of the transition and, together with robotics, physical tasks will also be replaced by non-humans.

The AI Action Plan released in July 2025 outlines a serious federal commitment to this challenge, including AI-focused education initiatives, rapid retraining programs, and interagency coordination.  America’s Talent Strategy, released in August 2025, outlines a plan to increase economic opportunity for the labor force, including industry-driven strategies, worker mobility, and integrated systems. These measures establish a strong foundation, but the scale and pace of disruption demand further investment. Some gaps require additional federal initiatives, while others depend on coordinated efforts among state governments, industry, philanthropy, and local communities–including youth who are uniquely invested in long-term outcomes of today’s choices.

This brief proposes a two-track strategy, with youth co-design and co-governance embedded in implementation: