Technology 6 min read By Arthur Ellington
New York to spend $10m on AI training hub for 40,000 workers
New York state and city will invest $10 million in a Long Island City institute run by nonprofit Pursuit, aiming to train up to 40,000 lower-income New Yorkers for AI-related jobs by 2032.
New York will spend $10 million to create an AI training hub in Queens aimed at bringing up to 40,000 lower-income residents into the artificial intelligence workforce by 2032. The AI Jobs Institute, to be designed and run by the nonprofit Pursuit, will open in Long Island City and connect trainees with employers while producing research to inform state and federal workforce policy.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the initiative on Thursday, describing it as part of a broader effort to prepare workers for a labour market being reshaped by AI. «During a time when AI is transforming our workforce and causing uncertainty, New York is continuing to lead the nation with policies and training to ensure New Yorkers workers are protected and prepared for the future,» Hochul said. She added that the institute would connect thousands of New Yorkers with courses and career pathways, giving them the chance to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology.
Public funding comes from several sources, including Empire State Development, the city's Economic Development Corporation and the Queens Borough President's Office. Private funders — among them Ascendium Education Group,, Wells Fargo, Con Edison and Adobe — will pay to operate the hub.
The institute opens as New York's technology labour market has moved ahead of its long-standing West Coast rival. The metro area added 30,640 tech workers between 2022 and 2025, reaching 394,300 and overtaking the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in the 13-year history of CBRE's annual tech talent report. Much of that growth came from banks and other financial firms hiring AI talent, although the Bay Area still employs more AI specialists.
The scale of the target is significant. Pursuit, founded in 2012, spent most of its history training people for software jobs before replacing that curriculum about three years ago with a 630-hour AI course that it updates every week. Around 400 to 500 people have completed the new programme, including shorter workshops. Reaching 40,000 would mean growing that number roughly eighty-fold in about six years.
Pursuit says 70% of its participants are Black or Latine, half receive public assistance, 60% lack a four-year degree and 40% are immigrants. It says its programmes have produced more than $1 billion in lifetime wage gains for participants. The state's release does not set placement or wage targets for the new institute.
The hub arrives as entry-level jobs that once absorbed new tech workers are shrinking. Census Bureau research shows that since ChatGPT's release, graduates of AI-exposed majors such as computer science have been landing fewer jobs and lower pay, often in retail and food service. Entry-level postings in AI-exposed fields increasingly ask for skills once expected only of experienced workers.
Pursuit chief executive Nick Simmons said the city alone will need millions of workers upskilled in AI to fill the economy's job needs by 2030. He said the institute is focused on lower-income New Yorkers, noting that in past waves of new technology wealthier residents got access to training first and the gap compounded. «Something we're really thinking about this time is the institute is really focused on lower income New Yorkers and making sure that this time they are able to be at the front of the line,» he said.
Recruitment runs through the New York City Housing Authority, the public library system, local labour departments and community groups, with plans to add small business associations. Trainees start with the basics of tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, then learn to build AI agents that handle routine business tasks. Simmons warned that without proficiency, AI can be dangerous, feeding users false answers or acting as a «yes person».
Former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will chair the institute's national advisory council. Members include Leah Belsky, OpenAI's head of education; Eleanor Dorfman, Anthropic's head of industries, commercial sales and private equity; Maggie Cacioppo of ; and CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez. The companies are supplying credits, certificates and access to their training platforms, while employers on the council report which skills they are hiring for.
The institute also plans to work with CUNY, which enrols roughly 500,000 students, on programmes such as add-on AI certificates. Pursuit trained 100 students this year at LaGuardia Community College, across the street from the new site, and plans to expand that partnership. Hochul's FutureWorks Commission is due to deliver proposals by the end of December on job training and placement, job quality, the social safety net and support for small businesses.
7
