Our Mission

To implement practical efforts to attract, retain, and grow AI talent in New England

What is this initiative?

The mission of AI Blueprint for MA is to implement practical efforts to attract, retain and grow AI talent in New England.
This effort is separate from but supportive of the $100M State of MA AI Task Force.
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What specifically is "AI Talent"?

Our discussion document

Initial List of Personas or Subsegments

  • A person individually making decisions
    • Students attending school in MA interested in AI
      • College students
        • Subsegments are US vs international students
        • International students with and without work visa
      • High school students
      • Grade school students
    • Professionals considering moving to MA to work in AI
  • A person in an organization making or influencing decisions
    • CEO of AI startup
    • Hiring companies (corporations, schools, NGOs)
    • AI champion at an MA hiring organization (corporations, schools, NGOs)
      • Major verticals
        • Bio/pharma
        • Financial
        • software/robotics
    • AI champion at investing firm
      • VC-based in Boston
      • Angel investors in Boston
      • Studios/crowdfunding
      • Government, education or NGO investment
    • Out-of-state companies considering moving the company or its AI center of excellence team to Boston

Some Questions

  • What are the core problems (a high cost of living?  not enough mega startup winners?) and how do  core problems differ among subsegment ("new to MA" students, employers, etc.)?
  • What has worked well in the past that we should do more of?
  • What is working well in other regions (Vector Institute and Mila in Canada, Stanford and State of CA, Engage.VC in Atlanta, )?
  • What are very specific things that can be done in 30-60 days to help (list of AI events, 90 second video of about existing AI community to show to students,  AI job fair, etc.)?

State of MA Effort - "Team MA"

State of MA Economic Development Plan "Team MA" and note 5 sectors

Sample problem statements

  • Fidelity decides to staff 6 AI jobs not in Boston because they can’t find talent
  • A very promising AI startup out of a university moves to CA and employs 50 AI engineers one year later
  • A very talented new professor candidate turns down an offer from a MA-based university because she doesn’t think Boston is doing cutting-edge AI research
  • A traditional manufacturing company wants to hire AI talent but contracts with Accenture instead because they can't find enough AI talent in the greater Boston area 

Context

East Coast Hubs (Boston, New York, Washington-Baltimore) grow AI employee base at 30-57%, exceeding Silicon Valley's 18% growth.

East Coast Hubs host 53% of top AI universities, fostering a strong talent pipeline (compared to West Coast at 27%).