Inside the NSF plan to prepare American workers for an AI-driven economy
Artificial intelligence has moved rapidly from research labs into everyday workplaces, classrooms, and local businesses. Despite this, access to the skills and tools needed to use it effectively remains uneven across the United States.
The NSF TechAccess: AI-Ready America initiative brings together multiple federal partners, including the Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Labor, and the Small Business Administration.
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The effort focuses on expanding access to AI knowledge, training, and technical resources so that individuals and organizations can better understand, apply, and create with artificial intelligence.
AI-Ready America initiative
As part of the program’s first phase, federal agencies are launching a funding opportunity to establish AI-ready Coordination Hubs in every U.S. state and territory.
These hubs are intended to connect local organizations, provide hands-on training, and support workforce development efforts tailored to regional needs.
The initiative also places an emphasis on helping small businesses and local governments adopt AI tools, while building pathways such as internships and project-based learning that translate technical knowledge into real-world skills.
The ultimate goal is to close the growing gap between national AI innovation and the people expected to use it in daily work. By investing in local infrastructure and partnerships, the program seeks to make advanced technologies more accessible beyond traditional tech centers, including rural and underserved communities.
I spoke to Mike England, Head of Media Affairs at the U.S. National Science Foundation, about how the AI-Ready America initiative will work in practice, how its outcomes will be measured, and how businesses can access support as the program rolls out.
- How will the NSF make these projects tangible for smaller businesses and then how does that trickle down to individual employees?
As the AI-Ready America program rolls out, there will be multiple ways for small businesses to connect to AI literacy, training, and practical deployment support.
For example, the solicitation asks State and Territory Coordination Hubs to offer hands-on help — everything from AI advisory services to technical setup — and to work with partners like Small Business Development Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, and American Job Centers so small businesses and others can adopt AI more easily.
- What metrics are they using, and how will they measure them — for both the competition and the output from the winners?
The solicitation specifies that the Management and Evaluation section of each proposal must address a defined set of required metrics, such as measures related to reach, adoption, capacity‑building activities, and partnerships, and proposers may include additional metrics appropriate to their approach.
NSF expects to share aggregated metric outputs from awardees as the program progresses.
- Are there any restrictions on the program (e.g., disqualifications of certain organizations that have DEI schemes still in place)?
Please refer to the solicitation for eligibility requirements. Participation is governed by the Eligibility Information and solicitation-specific requirements (including one proposal per institution for Coordination Hub awards) and by the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide referenced in the solicitation.
The solicitation also underscores the need for a broad set of organizations to be engaged, noting that Hubs must connect partners across sectors and leverage existing infrastructure and networks — such as workforce systems, community organizations, educational institutions, and small-business support networks—to ensure wide access to AI-readiness resources.
- When it comes to AI, what definition does NSF embrace and what does AI knowledge mean in that context?
Rather than a single technical definition of AI for this program, the solicitation describes AI-readiness in terms of building AI literacy, proficiency, and fluency — the ability to understand, apply, and create with AI, starting from foundational questions like “Why AI?” and “When AI?”
The solicitation and program materials also point to external resources that help further define this space, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s AI Literacy Framework, which outlines foundational competencies for responsible AI use.
- What safeguards are you requiring for AI research you fund — particularly around misuse or dual-use risks?
This program follows standard NSF policies. As with all NSF‑supported work, AI-Ready America proposals will be peer reviewed.
Further, this program is governed by NSF’s research security framework and policies and the agency only funds open, unclassified research.
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