A new bipartisan nonprofit, RAISE US, is launching with more than $500 million to help American workers pivot as AI reshapes jobs. Backed by major employers and led by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, the group will
The fear isn’t abstract to people watching their livelihoods get rewired—it’s timing. For the third morning, a factory job that once felt steady can start to feel fragile when automation and AI move from promise to practice.
That’s the worry animating RAISE US. a new bipartisan nonprofit that says America is rushing into an AI future without a plan to prevent job losses from becoming destabilizing at scale. Critics, in plain doomsday terms, warn of catastrophic layoffs. Backers answer with a different belief: that AI will generate enough new wealth to make mass unemployment a less urgent threat.
RAISE US is trying to stand in the middle of that argument—pushing for economic gains from AI while reducing the chance that workers pay the price.
The nonprofit is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training. Its approach leans toward partnerships with states and major employers, rather than relying on the federal government as the main engine.
RAISE US will first run programs in Arkansas, Maryland, Utah, and Connecticut.
The group is partnering with officials in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah. It is also working with several of America’s largest companies and charitable organizations as it designs what it calls policies to connect schools more closely to employers—so that layoffs can be replaced by new jobs with higher incomes. The nonprofit is also exploring changes to corporate taxes and other incentives aimed at keeping people working.
Gina Raimondo, the former Commerce Secretary who is a Democrat, will serve as the nonprofit’s CEO. Eric Holcomb, the former Indiana governor who is a Republican, founded the organization alongside Raimondo.
In an interview, Raimondo warned that the country could face a level of unemployment that threatens more than finances. “We’re talking about a certain level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy,” she said. “If you want to lead the world in AI. you have to take action to make sure our democracy doesn’t crumble.”.
Holcomb put it in more everyday economic terms: “Good things tend to happen when you convert have-nots into haves.”
Among RAISE US’s anchor partners are Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, and Bank of America. Other employers involved include UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, chipmaker AMD, Cisco, and IBM.
The nonprofit’s advisory board includes former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, billionaire investment manager Stephen Schwarzman, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Raj Chetty.
Even as RAISE US designs programs in the real world, the debate over AI’s job impact is already running ahead of legislation.
An April analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that roughly half of U.S. jobs will be reshaped by AI over the next few years. and said as many as 25 million jobs could be eliminated in the U.S. over the next five years. In March, Goldman Sachs separately estimated that a quarter of U.S. work hours could be automated by AI.
The concern isn’t limited to factory floors. AI has the potential to displace human workers from factories to offices—filling roads with driverless trucks, creating factories staffed by robots, and supplanting office workers, lawyers, and doctors.
President Donald Trump, by contrast, has expressed little anxiety about AI displacing human workers. Asked on Tuesday ahead of touring a Mack Trucks factory in Pennsylvania if AI could cause truckers to lose their jobs, Trump told a reporter, “Right now, they’re not.”
Trump has also said he is betting on AI data centers and power plants to drive hiring and overall economic growth. While AI-related investments have helped the economy. manufacturing has shed 68. 000 jobs and the trucking transportation sector has cut 28. 300 jobs since the start of Trump’s second term. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Our manufacturing has shed 68. 000 jobs and the trucking transportation sector has cut 28. 300 jobs since the start of Trump’s second term. ” the figures underscore. Trump said. “We have. right now. so many jobs that are going to be available and the biggest problem we have is getting the people. So we’re really doing spectacular.”.
That clash—between optimism about job creation and fear about job displacement—runs straight through the new nonprofit’s mission.
AI experts argue the country’s institutions were built for a different pace and a different kind of economic disruption. They have warned of gaps between the transformations AI could create and a social safety net that still assumes a slower churn—unemployment insurance and four-year college. they say. look ill-prepared for the scope. scale. and speed of change.
“AI is now disrupting multiple sectors simultaneously. faster than any institution can respond. ” said Vivienne Ming. a neuroscientist who has written the book “Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers. Build Better People.” Ming said she agrees with an argument by economists that the wealth generated by AI could create demand for more workers that could offset any job losses. But she said the skills that matter in an AI economy go beyond trades such as plumbing or construction and involve curiosity and intellectual flexibility.
“Neither our education system nor our labor policies are building the foundational human capital that AI-era work actually requires,” Ming said.
RAIMONDO’s plan is to test ideas in states now, with the expectation that Congress could later embrace what works.
Raimondo said the nonprofit wants to use states as a vehicle for testing ideas that Congress can later embrace as policies, paving the way for the possibility of more profound changes to both the tax code and the educational system.
“I don’t have a lot of hope for bold action by Congress in the next few years on this issue. and I don’t think we can wait a few years. ” Raimondo said. “I also think there are many examples in history that when the federal government does take action. they will look around at what has been working in states. I feel pretty confident that they will look at the work that we’ve done.”.
RAISE US Gina Raimondo Eric Holcomb AI jobs workforce training education policy automation layoffs corporate tax incentives Arkansas Maryland Utah Connecticut Amazon Microsoft Bank of America
So this is basically a jobs bailout? Or just another group taking money.
I don’t buy the whole “AI will create enough new wealth” thing. They always say that right before they lay people off. Also Raimondo… like isn’t that the same kind of people that caused problems in the first place?
Wait so are they saying the factory jobs are gonna just disappear like tomorrow? Because the article reads like it’s already happening, third morning?? But then it says it’s rushing into the AI future without a plan. I’m confused if it’s for training or like subsidies to companies.
500 million sounds huge but it’s still not gonna magically replace the union jobs that get cut. They’re acting like it’s “bipartisan” so it won’t be a scam lol. If workers are “pivoting” then why do I keep hearing about more layoffs every week? Sounds like wishful thinking dressed up as policy.