Bipartisan Nonprofit RAISE US Launches With $500M to Shield U.S. Workers From AI-Driven Job Loss

The United States is barreling toward an AI-powered future with no comprehensive strategy to address potentially catastrophic mass job displacement. Critics have laid out doomsday scenarios straight out of a science fiction thriller, while AI proponents argue the technology will generate so much unprecedented new wealth that widespread layoffs do not require urgent, large-scale intervention.

Now, a new cross-partisan nonprofit aims to change that trajectory, working to help the U.S. unlock AI’s promised economic gains without leaving American workers to bear the cost of the transition. Called RAISE US, the initiative launched with more than $500 million in funding earmarked for innovative education and workforce training models, prioritizing partnerships with state governments and major private employers over top-down federal action.

Co-founded by former Democratic U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, the group’s core mission is to test pilot programs and policy incentives that help workers transition to new careers as AI automates growing segments of the U.S. economy.

“We’re facing a level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy,” Raimondo shared in an interview. “If the U.S. wants to lead the world in AI development, we have to act now to make sure our democracy doesn’t crumble under the strain of mass displacement.”

Pilot programs will roll out first in four states: Arkansas, Maryland, Utah, and Connecticut. The nonprofit is already collaborating with state leaders in these locations, alongside several of the nation’s largest corporations and charitable organizations. RAISE US plans to develop policy frameworks that align education systems more closely with employer skill needs, so displaced workers can step into new, higher-wage roles instead of facing long-term unemployment. The group is also exploring adjustments to corporate tax policy and other financial incentives designed to keep workers employed amid automation.

“Good outcomes consistently follow when we lift people from economic exclusion to participation,” Holcomb said of the initiative’s approach.

Anchor founding partners include major tech and finance leaders: Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, and Bank of America. Additional participating employers span nearly every major industry, from logistics to pharmaceuticals: UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, chipmaker AMD, Cisco, and IBM.

Raimondo, who previously served as Democratic governor of Rhode Island and shaped core AI policy during her time in the Biden administration’s Commerce Department, will serve as the nonprofit’s CEO. Its high-profile advisory board includes former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, billionaire investment executive Stephen Schwarzman, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and leading economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Raj Chetty.

AI has the potential to displace human workers across every segment of the economy, from factory floors to white-collar office suites. An April analysis from the Boston Consulting Group projects that roughly half of all U.S. jobs will be fundamentally reshaped by AI over the next several years, with as many as 25 million positions eliminated entirely within the next five years. A separate March estimate from Goldman Sachs found AI could automate up to one-quarter of all working hours across the U.S. economy.

Far more than an advanced search engine or a tool for generating viral videos and digital art, AI could lead to nationwide fleets of driverless trucks, fully automated manufacturing facilities, and AI taking over routine work currently done by office staff, lawyers, and even clinicians.

Former President Donald Trump has downplayed risks of AI-driven worker displacement. When asked Tuesday ahead of a tour of a Mack Trucks factory in Pennsylvania whether AI could put truckers out of work, Trump told reporters, “Right now, they’re not.”

Most experts agree that existing U.S. education systems and labor policies are not built for an AI-first economy. AI researchers have long warned that 20th-century structures — from traditional unemployment insurance to the standard four-year college model — are ill-prepared for the speed, scale, and scope of the AI transformation.

“AI is disrupting multiple sectors all at once, faster than any of our existing institutions can adapt,” said Vivienne Ming, a neuroscientist and author of Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People. Ming noted she agrees with economists who argue that new wealth generated by AI will create demand for new types of work that can offset some job losses, but she added that the most valuable skills in an AI economy extend beyond traditional trades like plumbing or construction, centering instead on curiosity and intellectual flexibility.

Raimondo said RAISE US will use state-level programs as testing grounds for policy ideas that Congress can later adopt as national policy, paving the way for deeper overhauls of the U.S. tax code and public education system.

“I don’t have a lot of hope for bold action from Congress on this issue over the next few years, and we can’t afford to wait that long,” she said.