On June 25, former United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo officially launched Raise Us, a new initiative designed to tackle what she calls the United States’ most critical unaddressed gap: the country lacks a cohesive people strategy to match its existing national technology strategy.
In this conversation, Raimondo breaks down how she built a $500 million funding pool, locked in bipartisan political backing, and secured founding launch partners ranging from global banking giant Bank of America to leading AI firm Anthropic, all before the initiative’s foundational blueprints were even finalized.
AI-driven job displacement is a deeply pressing threat to U.S. workers, and Raimondo’s solution amounts to nothing less than a full collective reimagining of how America trains its workforce, supports workers through career shifts, and values labor across all sectors. She warns that the window for the U.S. to implement meaningful change on this issue is far narrower than most policymakers and the public realize.
What follows is an abridged transcript of this interview, which originally appeared on Rapid Response — a podcast hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. Produced by the same team behind the hit business podcast Masters of Scale, Rapid Response features unfiltered, candid conversations with today’s top business leaders as they navigate unfolding, real-time professional and economic challenges.
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Gina Raimondo’s bipartisan fight for workers in the age of AI
