July 17, 2025
Reasonable Panic
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick is quietly launching the next wave of food automation through his new venture, CloudKitchens. He recently revealed a 60-square-foot machine that assembles 300 custom bowls per hour, cutting labor costs by as much as 60 percent. The system handles everything from ingredient dispensing to delivery handoff. And this is just the beginning. Kalanick envisions…
July 1, 2025
Irresistible Force, Meet the Immovable Object
Some important new numbers are out on the future of the US labor supply, highlighting how a confluence of factors—demographic aging, economic growth, and restrictive immigration policy—are conspiring to create historically tight labor markets in the coming years. The impacts of these trends on businesses and consumers will be pervasive, difficult to manage, and annoying. Americans, I…
June 23, 2025
The Future of Work Is a Liminal Space
It’s been another breathless week in the business of projecting how artificial intelligence will reshape the US (and global) labor markets. Following Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s warnings of an AI “bloodbath,” several major tech companies announced plans to make significant workforce reductions, citing AI efficiencies as the reason. LinkedIn co-founder and Netflix board member Reid Hoffman stepped into the conversation…
June 16, 2025
Accountable for Outcomes: We Need Evidence-Based Funding Models
Key Points Introduction Amid escalating college costs, mounting student debt, and rising college graduate underemployment, students of all backgrounds increasingly question college as a path to economic mobility. This shift has sparked interest in alternatives to college—from high school career and technical education (CTE) programs to short-term adult training courses proposed for Pell Grant funding…
June 11, 2025
From Engineers to Fast Food, How AI Is Rocking the Future of Jobs
The future is here, and it requires robust AI literacy and support for workers and families. Artificial intelligence development and deployment is accelerating, and so are the ironies. A recent report by Great Learning found that a growing number of Indian engineers — a group deeply involved in creating and deploying AI — are pessimistic about how…
June 5, 2025
Measuring the Value of Nondegree Credentials
Event Summary On June 5, AEI’s Mark Schneider, in partnership with the Burning Glass Institute (BGI), hosted an event to discuss the value of nondegree credentials. The first discussion was a conversation between BGI President Matt Sigelman and Dr. Schneider, in which they gave context to the discussion by introducing an upcoming report and website,…
May 29, 2025
AI Has Invaded the Classroom—Here’s How We Catch Up
Artificial intelligence has quietly entered the nation’s classrooms. Teachers and administrators are scrambling to catch up. On April 23, the White House announced the Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth Executive Order, creating a federal taskforce chaired by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Education, and other agencies. The goal:…
May 29, 2025
Veteran Transition Services: Getting More Bang for the Buck
We recently released a new report examining the persistent challenges facing veteran transition services and outlining a path forward to improve how these programs are delivered, monitored, and evaluated. The report emphasizes the need for targeted, customized support—especially for enlisted service members who often face the greatest difficulty reentering civilian life. These are matters of fairness and…
May 22, 2025
Those College Grad, Knowledge Economy Blues (And What to Do About Them)
In a recent Atlantic Magazine article about how college graduates are faring in the labor market, columnist Derek Thompson highlights new data to the contest over whether the costs of a bachelor’s degree outweigh its benefits. Relying on analysis from the Federal Reserve, Thompson notes that the unemployment rate for graduates with four-year degrees is slightly higher than those with…
May 7, 2025
Workforce Participation for Older Americans: Warning Lights Flashing
Over the past generation, the work trends for older Americans were one of the bright spots in an otherwise decidedly mixed labor force picture. But that is no longer the case. Both employment and labor force participation rates (LFPRs) for the 55-plus contingent in the American workforce fell sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic—but mysteriously, and…