AI & Work
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday, Oct. 22, announced the launch of the AI Jobs Institute, a training center in Long Island City, Queens, that aims to train up to 40,000 New Yorkers by 2032 for jobs connected to artificial intelligence.
The institute is designed and run by Pursuit, a New York City nonprofit workforce development organization, and is meant to connect people who are often left out of the tech economy with AI-related careers, according to the governor’s office. The announcement was posted on the governor’s website in a Spanish-language release dated Oct. 22 in Albany; no English version was listed on the governor’s news page when it was checked Friday.
The 40,000 figure is a long-range training goal, not a count of jobs or job placements. The release does not say how many participants will be placed in jobs, what salaries graduates could expect, how long programs will run or who will be eligible.
Money and timeline
Empire State Development is putting $3.06 million into the new center: $1.5 million through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development and $1.56 million through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative. The state says the institute has a total public investment of $10 million.
Construction is scheduled to begin this winter, and the institute is expected to be fully operational by mid-2027, the release said. That means the large-scale training described in the announcement is still more than a year away.
What the institute will do
The governor’s office described four areas of work: workforce training, including AI-focused career pathways and immersive programs; innovation projects and tools developed with small businesses and nonprofits; policy and research that produces real-world data and recommendations for state and federal AI workforce strategy; and building an ecosystem that brings employers, job seekers and industry partners together.
The building will also house the New York Global Tech and Innovation Center, an initiative of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. aimed at launching startups led by entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.
Private supporters listed by the state include Ascendium Education Group, Wells Fargo, Google.org, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mizuho, the Siegel Family Endowment, Con Edison, Spectrum, the MetLife Foundation, Adobe and the New York Jobs CEO Council. A national advisory council will be chaired by Miguel Cardona, the former U.S. secretary of education.
Pursuit's track record, by its own numbers
According to figures in the release, 70% of Pursuit participants are Black or Latino, 50% receive public assistance, 60% do not have a four-year college degree and 40% are immigrants. The release says Pursuit has generated more than $1 billion in wage increases for participants to date; that is the organization’s cumulative claim and was not independently verified.
Pursuit is also leading a separate statewide program, AI Prep for Jobs, which the release says will train 420 low-income New Yorkers. Hochul’s FutureWorks Commission is due to present policy proposals at the end of December.
Why it matters for workers
The release frames the institute as a response to uncertainty about how AI is reshaping the workforce. For New Yorkers without a four-year degree, the institute is pitched as an alternative route into technical work.
The key questions are still open: how many people will be enrolled each year once the center opens, which employers will commit to hiring graduates, and what wages those jobs pay. Until the center is operating, the announcement is a funding and capacity commitment rather than evidence of new jobs.
Sources
- Office of the Governor of New York, “La Gobernadora Hochul Anuncia el Lanzamiento del AI Jobs Institute para Preparar a los Neoyorquinos para los Empleos del Futuro” (Spanish-language release), October 22, 2026. https://governor.ny.gov/news/la-gobernadora-hochul-anuncia-el-lanzamiento-del-ai-jobs-institute-para-preparar-los
Featured photo: High-rise buildings around Queens Plaza in Long Island City, Queens, photographed Jan. 30, 2025. Representative image; not the AI Jobs Institute site. Photo: Kidfly182, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Cropped from the original.
