Lawrence, Massachusetts is moving to give its young residents a seat at the table in the AI economy, launching a training program aimed at getting the city's youth into artificial intelligence careers before automation reshapes the entry-level jobs that have long served as their first rung up.
The city, home to roughly 90,000 people in the Merrimack Valley and one of the poorest municipalities in the state, is seeking a provider to deliver hands-on AI workforce training specifically for young Lawrence residents. The program is listed on Massachusetts' procurement portal, posted Oct. 1. The focus is workforce training targeted at the fastest-moving sector in the regional economy, not general digital literacy instruction.
The stakes are high for a city like Lawrence. About 80% of residents are Latino, predominantly Dominican and Puerto Rican, and nearly a third were born outside the United States. Median household incomes sit far below the state average, and child poverty rates rank among the highest in Massachusetts. Lawrence's schools spent 13 years under state receivership before returning to local control in 2024. For generations, Lawrence's young people have started out in administrative, retail and service jobs, exactly the categories economists at Brookings, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum identify as most vulnerable to AI-driven displacement.
The geographic contrast is stark. Some of the country's most active AI employers are clustered along the Route 128 tech corridor, less than an hour from Lawrence. Governor Maura Healey's administration has made Massachusetts a national leader in AI policy, launching an AI Strategic Task Force in late 2023 and establishing the Massachusetts AI Hub in 2024. But without a direct on-ramp, that proximity has meant little for Lawrence's youth.
Mayor Brian DePeña, the city's first Dominican-American mayor, has made youth opportunity a signature priority. This program fits squarely in that frame: rather than waiting for AI's disruptions to arrive, Lawrence is trying to position its youngest residents on the producing end of the technology.
Lawrence has been rebuilding for more than a decade through Gateway Cities initiatives and state workforce investments, but a youth-specific AI training program appears to be one of the first of its kind at the municipal level in Massachusetts. With the city's median age around 32, workforce programs aimed at teenagers and young adults carry outsized consequences for Lawrence's long-term economic trajectory.
The city will select a training provider through the competitive bid process, with programming expected to follow.
