This post was originally published in Fast Company on April 11, 2024.
Americans are experiencing some conflicting feelings about AI.
While people are flocking to new roles like prompt engineer and AI ethicist, the technology is also predicted to put many jobs at risk, including computer programmers, data scientists, graphic designers, writers, lawyers.
Little wonder, then, that a national survey by the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development found an overwhelming majority of Americans (66%) believe that they “will need more technological skills to achieve their career goals.” One thing is certain: Workers will need to train for change. And in a world of misinformation-filled social media platforms, it is increasingly important for trusted public institutions to provide reliable, data-driven resources.
In New Jersey, we’ve tried doing just that by collaborating with workers, including many with disabilities, to design technology that will support better decision-making around training and career change. Investing in similar public AI-powered tools could help support better consumer choice across various domains. When a public entity designs, controls and implements AI, there is a far greater likelihood that this powerful technology will be used for good.
USING AI TO PREPARE FOR THE AI FUTURE
In New Jersey, the public can find reliable, independent, unbiased information about training and upskilling on the state’s new MyCareer website, which uses AI to make personalized recommendations about your career prospects, and the training you will need to be ready for a high-growth, in-demand job.
The New Jersey Office of Innovation (full disclosure: I founded the Office and now serve there as an unpaid advisor) and the State’s Department of Labor quietly launched MyCareer. last month. MyCareer is actually two websites in one: Career Navigator and Training Explorer.
TRAINING EXPLORER: DATA-DRIVEN COURSE COMPARISONS
On Training Explorer, anyone can search for training opportunities. Type in “plumbing” to search for online and in-person training programs. The site returns 72 options with details for each about location, language, cost, wheelchair accessibility and time-to-complete. But, more importantly, it draws on real-time labor market data to indicate that plumbing is an in-demand career, which has openings. Sinks still get clogged in an AI world.
For each course, Training Explorer tells you the average income and employment rate of people who took the course. Today, a $17K plumbing course from a private college in New Jersey has a 17% employment rate; yet a $1,299 course from a publicly funded institution has a 96.1% post-course employment rate. Moreover, the after-program salary for those who went to the first school was $27,556 while graduates from the public program went on to earn $43,256. Training providers furnish the state with data about who took their programs, which the state then matches privately and securely to wage records to deliver this anonymized outcome data. All employers subject to unemployment compensation laws have to submit wage data to the state where they operate. With such outcomes data, residents can inform their decision-making and training providers can improve their offerings.
CAREER NAVIGATOR: PERSONALIZED JOB RECOMMENDATIONS
The other half of this twin website is the Career Navigator. Logging in with my gmail or LinkedIn like any commercial website, the site prompts me to upload my résumé so I don’t have to type in my education or work history. Based on the resumé information, which the state stores securely in its protected cloud, Career Navigator offers personalized career advice about those in-demand careers in New Jersey that are well-matched to my skills. It shows me predicted pay ranges and job availability along with direct links to job opportunities. To give me individualized advice on current job openings, it is drawing on real-time data from the National Labor Exchange. The Exchange is a public-private data partnership among 300,000 employers and state workforce agencies, designed to connect workers with job openings.
While we are accustomed to Netflix recommending which movie to watch next or Amazon suggesting a book to buy, government websites are usually one-size-fits all. Taking advantage of the data the government collects from business and individuals, however, artificial intelligence can help government agencies provide information personalized to each individual.
After ingesting the data from my resume, Career Navigator uses double-debiased machine learning (AI designed to remove biases) to predict other occupations with which I might have the most skills in common in order to help me identify new career opportunities. Many careers have skills in common. However, the creators explain to me, even if being a surgeon demands many of the same skills as another job, the system will not tell just anyone to become a surgeon. It will only propose jobs that require similar levels of education attainment rather than telling someone with a high school diploma about a job that requires medical school.
In addition to using AI to match you to a new career, the site also makes personalized recommendations about training, suggesting those learning opportunities that are most likely to lead to a wage bump. Those recommendations are driven by the data on whether people with similar skills to mine have taken the course and seen their pay increase. Finally, it can make recommendations based on how well it can build upon someone’s existing skill set, how much more money they can make, and whether there will be enough job openings for them to find a job.
While the platform is revolutionary, there are still some challenges to address. For instance, not all training providers consistently report comprehensive data, leading to gaps in the information available to users. Improving data collection and reporting processes will be crucial for enhancing the platform’s effectiveness.The site struggles to explain in plain English to job seekers what it means to have machine learning help with evidence-based recommendations. Future iterations on this site will need to address these issues. But giving job seekers powerful search tools rooted in reliable data that can help them make informed decisions is game changing.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC AI-POWERED RESOURCES
By providing job seekers with personalized, data-driven recommendations and transparent information about training outcomes, the MyCareer platform empowers individuals to make informed decisions about their careers in the face of technological change. As a state with millions of workers to support and protect, it’s hard to give each one the tailored services that might best lead them to success. Such AI-enabled tools make it possible to scale up personalized services to help New Jerseyans climb career ladders or switch to a more rewarding profession. As AI continues to reshape the workforce, initiatives like these will be essential for helping workers navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead from AI’s impact on the future of work.
