AI is already reshaping work, but the policy and business response is still being written. The next year offers a rare window to inform presidential platforms, federal and state policy agendas, boardroom decisions, and workers’ choices while they are still taking shape.
Launched in June 2026, the Commission on AI and the Future of the American Workforce is a bipartisan initiative co-chaired by Gina Raimondo (former U.S. Secretary of Commerce) and Paul Ryan (former Speaker of the House) and hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and the Urban Institute.
Over the next year, a cross-ideological body of commissioners from business, labor, academia, and government will collaborate to develop practical policy playbooks that help the nation prepare for multiple possible AI futures.
The Commission, co-directed by Brent Orrell, senior fellow at AEI, and Elisabeth Jacobs, executive director of WorkRise at the Urban Institute, will conduct real-time analysis, engage stakeholders across sectors, and issue policy recommendations to help leaders act on evidence as AI’s effects become clearer.
Invest in the Commission
The Commission is currently seeking philanthropic funders. By investing in this work, funders contribute not simply to research, but to the evidence, leadership, and public engagement needed to help ensure AI expands opportunity for all workers, employers, and communities. Please contact us at [email protected] for more information on opportunities to support our work.
About the Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization founded on one simple idea: To improve lives and strengthen communities, we need practices and policies that work. For more than 50 years, that has been our charge. By equipping changemakers with evidence and solutions, together we can create a future where every person and community has the opportunity and power to thrive.
About the American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. The work of our scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in our belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.
Why a Commission?
Artificial intelligence is too consequential and too uncertain for any one organization to navigate alone. A commission provides the structure to:
- Bring together leaders who see different parts of the problem. Employers, labor, policymakers, educators, researchers, and philanthropy each hold part of the answer.
- Prepare for multiple futures, rather than predict a single one. Recommendations are designed to adapt as evidence emerges and conditions change.
- Build durable solutions. Bipartisan leadership and cross-sector participation increase the likelihood that recommendations can endure across political transitions and be implemented in practice.
- Inform decisions while they are still being made. Through public briefings, rolling analysis, and ongoing engagement, the commission will shape conversations in government, boardrooms, and workplaces through its ongoing work, not only through a final report.
What makes this Commission different?
- Bipartisan by design. Jointly led by AEI and Urban, the Commission is designed to produce recommendations that can endure across administrations and political transitions.
- Worker-centered and data-grounded. The Commission assesses the effects of AI through the lens of its impacts on workers, employers, and communities, seeking solutions that strengthen productivity, expand opportunity, and support long-term economic growth.
- Built for uncertainty. Rather than predicting a single future, the Commission develops practical policy playbooks that can adapt as AI adoption unfolds under different scenarios and conditions.
- Informed by those closest to the challenge. Leaders from business, labor, government, civil society, and academia work together to test assumptions, challenge ideas, and develop recommendations grounded in both evidence and implementation.
- Designed to shape decisions in real time. Public briefings, rolling analysis, and ongoing engagement will inform policy debates, employer strategies, and workplace conversations throughout the Commission’s work.