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Trump has already built the AI highway
OPINION:
The biggest economic shift of our lifetime is not on the horizon; it is already here — and America is taking important steps to lead the way.
Whether in healthcare, banking, manufacturing, logistics, energy or national defense, artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the defining economic force of the next generation.
President Trump deserves tremendous credit for helping accelerate that momentum. His administration elevated AI, advanced computing, energy expansion and domestic infrastructure investment as strategic national priorities tied directly to American competitiveness and economic security.
Today, billions of dollars are flowing into AI infrastructure, data centers, energy modernization and advanced computing facilities across the country. Former industrial regions in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas are being repositioned as hubs for digital infrastructure and technological growth.
In many respects, the AI highway is now being built. Yet infrastructure alone will not determine whether America wins the global AI race.
The real question is whether American workers and communities will share in what is being built around them.
We cannot repeat a familiar mistake. The investment shows up. The ribbon-cuttings happen. New industries take root, and the people who live there end up watching from the sidelines because no one trained them for the jobs that came with them.
You do not get ahead of this by trying to stop it. We did not hold back the automobile or the internet, and we should not want to. What decides who wins is people. Right now, too few have been taught the skills to succeed.
With AI, that gap opens faster than ever.
The countries that win the AI economy will not be the ones with the biggest data centers or the smartest algorithms. They will be the ones whose citizens know how to use what gets built.
China understands this. America must as well.
The AI economy will require far more than software engineers. It will demand electricians, cybersecurity analysts, cloud administrators, technicians, healthcare technologists, skilled trades, project managers and small businesses capable of operating in an increasingly digital economy.
Those jobs can create enormous economic mobility for American families, but only if people have access to the training and tools needed to compete for them.
That is why America urgently needs a national strategy for AI labs and workforce-readiness centers.
These labs should not exist only inside elite universities. They should exist in public schools, community colleges, workforce centers, libraries and underserved communities across the country.
They should be in places where students, veterans, workers and entrepreneurs can gain direct exposure to AI tools, cloud technologies, cybersecurity systems and digital workforce skills tied to real jobs.
The good news: There are already signs that this model is working.
Last summer in Baltimore, an AI lab launched inside the Greenmount Recreation Center through a public-private partnership involving technology companies, educators, nonprofits and community leaders. The program quickly became oversubscribed, proving an important point: Communities are not afraid of technology. They are simply asking for access to opportunity.
That lesson should guide the country from now on.
The government helped lay the foundation. Now, business leaders, technology companies, educators, nonprofits, workforce organizations and local governments must help build the workforce on-ramps that connect Americans to the AI economy.
When the next AI campus or advanced computing center opens in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Baltimore, Phoenix or elsewhere, young people from those communities should already have the skills they need to succeed.
If America gets this right, it will not simply participate in the AI economy; it will lead it.
• Michael L. Barrett is senior adviser to the board of directors of Hamilton Reserve Bank, founder and CEO of Global Premier Health, and senior executive leader in residence with KPMG Advisory Services.
Copyright © 2026 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
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