Preparing the Workforce for AI: A Conversation with Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling

Dr. Ronnie Chatterji: The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor has a perspective here that's really key because you're both someone who's, you know, day to day managing an incredibly large team. You're also out on the road talking to real people, people who are building data centers, using AI in their job, thinking about the impact on their careers.

So to start, I mean, when you think about the AI Action Plan, which has been the administration's signature initiative here, how does it intersect with the work you're doing? How do you think we should think about it in terms of the impact on workers? And what are the most important pieces this audience should know about the Action Plan?

Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling: Yeah, well, first, thanks again for having me and for your partnership with us, which we'll talk about at length. But the President's AI Action Plan, if you look at it across the board, you know, not just in the labor context, just everything this administration wants to do in the global AI scene to be competitive. One of the biggest components of it, in my eyes, and selfishly, is that labor component to it.

Because I think we all realize now, without a skilled American workforce, without having American workers get these jobs, companies like yours can deliver and build these products and build these and have that capital flow for these data infrastructure centers across the country. But if we can't deliver the American worker, it's not going to work out. And I think that's really the guidepost of everything this administration wants to do on AI, is delivering the workers. And that's really how we're going to succeed. That's how we're going to be competitive globally. And that's really the most exciting part for us.

And not just from the technology perspective, but just all the historic investments coming in the country from foreign companies, from foreign countries that you've seen from the President's trade deals, bringing back manufacturing, bringing back industry to America. We're seeing companies and countries deliver on that promise. We're seeing that money coming in.

But again, that's not going to work either if we don't have the American skilled workers to be able to do those jobs. So everyone is delivering on bringing this infrastructure, companies are willing to do it, but now it's on the Department of Labor to actually get those skilled workers here, not just our current workers, but also working with the education system there in building the next generation of workers with these new skills, with these new jobs that were coming.

So it's a very exciting part, but there's two key parts to the AI Action Plan, specifically to labor. Number one is on the front end side of having the workers being able to deliver and build these infrastructure centers. And what we're seeing, obviously, you know, the investing can come in, the technology can come in, but we need the workers to be able to do that.

And that's what we know best. And looking at Sean right here, we have a longstanding relationship, both personally and as the Department of Labor, and that's going back to basics. And that's going back to the bread and butter of what our labor force can do. But now we're just seeing such a huge increase in demand for building facilities.

And, you know, there's a lot of statistics out there, 140,000 job deficit in building these centers that are going to be able to then host this technology and allow employers to use it. And let's go back to basics there. What works? And that's American workers building these facilities.

So, and how do they do that? Through the traditional trades and registered apprenticeships, which we'll talk about. And we're doubling down on that. We believe, you know, as you all think about where you need to go, we're already working and making sure that the skilled trades are coming back.

You look at how complicated it is to construct these from an electrician standpoint, from an HVAC standpoint, that's where we're focused on right now, because as these promises to build are coming in, we need to increase the workers there that can build it.

And then second, once they're up and running, we can't just walk away. Then we need the skilled tech workers to be able to operate and manage these facilities. And what we're seeing is that a lot of these facilities are going to go in rural areas with high unemployment. And that's where we really need to be focusing on getting those workers those skills, not just to build the facilities, but to operate the facilities. And that's what the AI Action Plan does for the labor component side of it.

Chatterji: This is really interesting. One of the things you've talked a lot about in public remarks, and we talked about, is the concept of AI literacy. And I think a lot of folks out there are wondering, okay, for the 36% of people who haven't used AI, those who are using it less frequently, how are they going to pick up these skills?

And what productive role can government play at a time when technology is moving really fast to help workers get up to speed? What's been your approach as a Deputy Secretary in the broader department?

Dep. Sec. Sonderling: We have to take a step back. And what I saw, let's just focus on the current workforce before the next generation in the workforce. And what I see is that companies right now are out there, tech companies, software companies, want to develop this new technology.

And they really want to sell it to companies for the right reasons, to help their workforce become more productive. And the implementation side of that with our current workforce right now, you're not seeing that at the scale that keeping up with technology. And a lot of that based now with our current workforce is the lack of these basic AI literacy skills. And what does that do? It creates fear. And if you are a worker and you're afraid to use the technology that your company is investing in, that your employer wants to get for you to be more productive at work, to have a better workplace experience, but you have that fear of using that technology. Number one, because you don't understand it, right? You're not a coder. You don't come because this is industry agnostic. It's hitting every single industry and every single job is going to become an AI job and there can be some component of it, whether you're in construction, whether you're a nurse, whether you're in finance, you're going to have to understand how your job is going to be impacted by AI.

And right now where we are, without any baseline AI literacy skills, because this technology came for the vast majority of the workforce, when you are in the workforce, you're going to say that, oh, this is just my robot replacement. And I don't want to use this technology my employer just invested in because I have that fear that I'm just going to be training my robot replacement and my job is going to disappear.

And we don't believe that's true. What we need to have is that if the employees have that baseline AI literacy and they understand that, they'll say, okay, we know what the technology is doing. We have these skills. We know exactly why our employer is wanting to implement this, and we understand what it can and can't do. And then you'll have much more of a willingness to actually use it for your work in your daily work life. And understanding that is a huge gap right now for the current workforce.

But how do we look forward in saying, well, we want to prevent that from happening in the future, and we want students, whether they're in the middle school, elementary school, high school, our colleges, or reentering the workforce through our state workforce agencies to have that baseline AI literacy skill. So they're entering the workforce, willing, understanding, and excited to use it. And that's really where the rubber's going to meet the road now.

And that's a big part of what we're trying to accomplish through the president's executive order on AI literacy, working with the Department of Education, working with the National Science Foundation, working with the Department of Commerce, and having all these stakeholders involved. You know, from the technology side, from the education side, from the labor side, which we are, having industry and having industry tell us where they're going with developing these products and implementing these products.

This way we can then backtrack it into the education system, into our state workforce system that the Department of Labor funds, and really have that training geared to actionable products that are going to be out there, not hypothetical uses of AI. And that's where we think it's going to displace a lot of fear and get a lot more buy-in for this technology, knowing that it's not going to replace you, but here's what it's going to do on a daily basis.

Chatterji: It's going to be so interesting to watch the workforce development boards come up with these AI literacy plans, and there's going to be great ideas. So, North Carolina can learn from Florida, for example, and these things will be public. They can be customized to different states, and that's going to be because of the funding that will be associated with that to kind of incentivize that action. Is that how you're thinking about it?

Dep. Sec. Sonderling: And that's what we're doing significantly with the funding. The Department of Labor gives out billions of dollars to states, to non-profits across the board in the workforce development space. And, you know, now, looking at key industries that are coming back, you know, whether it's in manufacturing, whether it's in shipbuilding, construction, we can really tailor that money and say, we're going to give you this money, but you now, in this grant process, and applying for the money and deploying the money, tell us that AI literacy component to it.

And we've put that on a lot of our grants to our state workforce agencies, to nonprofits out there and saying, okay, you know, this is a workforce development grant in this industry. Well, like I said before, every industry is going to be impacted by this. Tell us how you're teaching AI for nursing. Tell us how you're teaching AI for manufacturing. So, whatever that industry is, they have to prove to us now that there's an AI literacy component so we could build that into our current deployment of state workforce money now.

And that's pretty significant, and that's different. And it's part of what we're doing and trying to do that. But then, what's the curriculum then for teaching this AI literacy? And that's another really big thing that we need to address. And, you know, part of our implementation of the AI Action Plan is this, again, this baseline AI literacy.

And we just put out our framework recently that's available online to then guide the state workforce agencies, guide employers on how to build that AI knowledge for your organization, for your industry. And there's five baseline principles and then there's seven implementation factors of it. And we kept it, you know, generic at top level so that industry can then plug in the gap for each of those.

So as that—so they have a guidepost for actually building this AI literacy very specific to your organization, very specific to your industry. And that's really what we're trying to do to address that, because that will, we believe, it will eliminate a lot of that employee-led fear that has not allowed the broader implementation that we would like.

Chatterji: The other interesting angle I think you've been talking a lot about, I know, I think you've been talking a lot about, I know it's an interest area for many people in the audience, is apprenticeships. $100 million-plus program for apprenticeships. Talk about how you're thinking about that, and also where AI fits into apprenticeships across industries.

Dep. Sec. Sonderling: Yeah, so the president issued an executive order within his first 100 days, calling for 1 million new registered apprenticeships. And these are in high-skilled apprenticeships. And what that has allowed us to do, it's really given us a license to go out there and say, what apprenticeship models have worked historically? And how can we expand the aperture? How can we get more people into these programs?

And if you look historically, and again, not to pick on you, you're right here, the vast, when you look at the traditional registered apprenticeships through the Department of Labor, registering through us, going through that curriculum, getting that certificate from the Department of Labor that you have for the rest of your life and it's transferable, where have they been? In the building trades. It's where the vast majority of our apprenticeships are there. But there's a lot of room there. And it doesn't need to just be in one area. And it doesn't have to have that perception.

If you're coming out of high school or you want to switch careers, you want to go into apprenticeships, you're just going to be working in certain areas. And that's not true. And we're trying to dispel that myth. And we're also trying to get more people into those traditional registered apprenticeships, because as you heard, that's where the jobs are going. And some of the highest paid entry-level jobs you can get out there, where we have that need, is building these facilities, and this work is so incredibly complex. And a lot of you in the tech world know what it takes to operate these data centers.

But from construction across the board, again, from all that infrastructure money coming into the US, the first part of it is construction. And that's where we need the jobs the most. And those are very, very rewarding, long term, high-paid careers. And we're trying to make sure that everybody knows they have that option, number one.

Number two is saying, okay, well, we want to get to a million new registered apprenticeships. Let's use that model and pitch it to other industries. And let's just say, let's go into high schools now and say, look how this model works in these industries. Look how much money people are making in these industries. Why can't other industries do it? It's not industry specific. It's not limiting these certain industries.

So we want to have tech apprenticeships. We want to have finance apprenticeships. We want to expand apprenticeships in the healthcare space. Because if you think about it, especially in your world here, how many people in high school have already taught themselves how to code? How many tech entrepreneurs didn't go to college themselves and created these trillion dollar companies?

So what we find is there's a lot of high school students out there that are ready to code. And instead of going for six years and getting a PhD in coding and then coming to a company like here and starting fresh, which is we also see, you can go to any of these big tech companies and then they train you and retrain you on their coding in the way they want, why not open those programs to high school students, get them in registered apprenticeship, get them in the workforce?

Because if you have somebody in high school who's an entrepreneur and wants to go and they can get a job at OpenAI at 18, and then still work with you to get, whether it's a four-year degree or et cetera, or work in there but earn while they learn through that traditional registered apprenticeship program, that we can really have the best of both worlds here. And that's what we're excited about.

But it's going back to basics and it's getting people into registered apprenticeships and getting it across various industries, will we not? And we believe that can solve a lot of the workforce shortages, both in tech and other areas across the board. So that's a very big initiative of ours. It's an executive order. We want to hit a million new apprenticeships and we can't do it without, not only bolstering our existing apprenticeships, but showing how that model works for companies that never even thought that they could have an apprenticeship.

Because when you think of apprenticeships, you don't think of tech companies. And we want it to be everything, and that's a big initiative of ours.

Chatterji: Well, and this will lead to my last question, which is, when we were talking about this, I was getting excited about how we can get more involved in that. You said, it's an AI workforce hub. That's where all these organizations like ours can get involved, and we're working with you to share data through these kinds of hubs. Tell us a little bit more about how that's going to work and how organizations like OpenAI and others can do more with the AI workforce hub.

Dep. Sec. Sonderling: Yeah, this is really going to be a big, probably the biggest part of the Department of Labor in the President's AI initiatives. And that's how can we have an actionable area where people can come to, both employees, employers, education, unions, and get that one-stop shop of information of how AI is impacting the workforce.

And we want to take control of that narrative, we want to have that narrative coming from us. And there's so much noise out there about AI job displacement and what it's going to really mean. And look, at the end of the day, nobody really knows what's going to happen in the future, but we can say what we can control now.

And that's getting more actionable information working with partners. So part of this AI Action Hub is going to be the Bureau of Labor Statistics doing a study working with companies like yours that have come to us and are entering into data sharing agreements to actually have BLS look at what AI job-related loss is going to look like. Not from a fear perspective, from a reality perspective. And what we think, and there's a lot of studies, I know you know this world very well, that AI is not, you know, for most jobs, it's not gonna completely eliminate your job, but it's gonna change the way you work.

Say 30% of your job now is going to be eliminated or done by AI agents or et cetera, well then what are we gonna do with that 30%?

And then how can we teach skills for that employer where they're going with those new productivity gains to make sure that that employee, you know, has more work to do and can understand, you know, what their new work life is with this technology.

And we believe coming from an organization like the Department of Labor, like BLS based on real statistics, is going to help ease some of the concerns and also actually better prepare workforce educators on where they need to be teaching these skills and where these new skills are going, number one.

Number two, if there is an inevitable job loss for AI, we're gonna have a rapid reskilling hub and that's gonna be working with our state workforce agencies and saying, okay, if a job is eliminated or, you know, the vast majority of what you've been doing is eliminated, what other opportunities are out there now, working with those same partners, both in the for-profit, non-for-profit, education world and saying, well, here's where the jobs are going. Here's, you know, this industry has an explosion of jobs now and these skills we need, we're gonna get you into a rapid reskilling program through our state workforce agencies, working with them in advance, to have that skilling opportunity that's going to lead to an open job where employers are telling us where they need to be right now.

In addition, a big part of it is going to be the responsible and compliant use of these programs. So we're gonna have all of our labor agencies do guidance on how AI is gonna impact civil rights from the EEOC perspective, how AI is gonna impact immunization from the National Labor Relations Board. From the OSHA perspective, here's how AI, employers can use AI to create healthier and safe workplaces using this technology, but here's the guardrails of how you're going to be able to do it on there.

But the most exciting part for me is the partnership we're doing. And we're still looking for partners, you all have an incredible amount of data. And you also know where this technology is going. And you, you know, that's very proprietary to you. But without having those conversations, without breaking those silos between industry and government, you can create these products. But then you're not going to have the engineers to continue developing it. And you're not going to have the workforce that has the skills to be able to use those project, products and that's not going to work for anybody. The employers don't get the gains and you don't have that product being successful. So it allows us to have these conversations saying, here's where we think this technology is going and pick whatever industry you want. Right? And here's where we're seeing where jobs are going to be created. Here's where skills are going to be needed based upon what we're developing that nobody knows about. And then we can work with our state workforce agencies. We can work with unions. We can work with the education system and then start getting those baseline skills out there because we know it's going to lead to actual jobs and skills that software companies like yours are developing.

And, you know, I know we're talking about tech, but think about any other industry there. And that's why everyone needs to be a part of this. Every job is going to have that AI component. And that's what we're trying to bring in everybody into this workup.

Chatterji: Well, Deputy Secretary, when it comes to democratizing access, democratizing the data and insights, we're proud to be partnered with you from the AI action plan to apprenticeships to the workforce hub, you're busy, but we congratulate you on being busy on working one of the most important issues facing the American people. So thank you very much for being here.

Dep. Sec. Sonderling: Thank you, too. I really appreciate it. And again, where I started is that everything that the private sector wants to do, all these investments, whether it's building a nuclear power plant in Kentucky or a shipyard in Philadelphia, we need the American workers to be there to have all the skills not only to build the underlying product, but then understanding AI, because every single job, no matter what, is going to have some AI component. And that's what we're excited about solving.

Chatterji: Fantastic. Well, let's give him a big round of applause. Thank you, Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling.