Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb have co-founded RAISE US, a new bipartisan nonprofit organization aimed at helping American workers adapt to the job market reshaped by artificial intelligence. The group has secured more than $500 million in initial funding, with a goal to raise $1 billion in multi-year commitments. RAISE US plans to invest in new forms of education and training, partnering with states and major employers to pilot programs and incentives that help workers transition to new careers. Raimondo will serve as the CEO, with Eric Beane as President.
The initiative will focus on developing policies that foster closer ties between schools and employers, ensuring that potential AI-driven layoffs can be offset by opportunities in new, potentially higher-income jobs. They are also exploring modifications to corporate taxes and other incentives to encourage companies to retrain and redeploy their existing workforces rather than resorting to layoffs. The initial state partnerships for RAISE US are in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, where they will test ideas that could later inform federal policy.
Among the anchor partners and employers involved with RAISE US are major companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI Foundation, Bank of America, UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, AMD, Cisco, and IBM. The advisory board includes notable figures like former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, investor Stephen Schwarzman, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Raj Chetty. The Boston Consulting Group estimated in April that roughly half of U.S. jobs could be reshaped by AI in the coming years, with up to 25 million jobs potentially eliminated over the next five years, underscoring the urgency of RAISE US's mission.
RAISE US aims to create a "people strategy" for the AI economy, emphasizing that while the U.S. has a technology strategy for AI, it lacks a comprehensive plan for its workforce. Raimondo highlighted that current worker support systems are outdated, and the goal is to provide modern transition support, including wage insurance and career navigation, to mitigate financial disruptions for workers changing jobs. In Maryland, for example, the collaboration will involve expanding service-year pathways and launching a competitive fund for innovative career transition models, while in Arkansas, it supports an AI-powered career navigation platform called Arkansas LAUNCH.
