How Cities, Workforce Boards, and Community Institutions Can Build AI Readiness for All

The Power of a Simple Card

Think back to the first time you held a library card. It wasn’t just a laminated rectangle—it was a key. A pass into worlds you didn’t yet know existed. A signal that you belong in places of learning, curiosity, and possibility.

Today, communities across the country stand at another transition point—one where access to AI will define who thrives in the next decade of work and who is left behind. Today this modern “library card” is AI literacy itself: a civic credential that opens doors to opportunity.

Why This Matters Now—The New Access Divide

Public libraries were built to close the knowledge gap. But as AI reshapes jobs, education, and daily life, the gap is shifting—from access to books, to access to understanding the tools shaping the modern world.

A rapidly shifting labor landscape
From Deloitte Center for Integrated Research’s 2025 workforce-evolution research: as birth rates decline and more experienced workers retire, the talent pool in many mature economies is shrinking — making AI-human collaboration, upskilling, re-skilling and knowledge transfer essential.

Workers know they are underprepared
A Deloitte Center for Integrated Research report about AI’s impact on the workforce states that among surveyed early-career workers (fewer than five years of experience), 83% use AI in their jobs versus 68% of tenured workers — suggesting a gap in adoption and comfort with AI tools, particularly across age/experience lines. The same report describes “anxiety beneath the surface”: while many early-career workers are open to AI, there remains uncertainty about long-term career implications and skill readiness.

The ‘library card’ is beginning to issue itself.
According to Deloitte Center for Integrated Research’s 2025 “Connected Consumer” survey, 53% of surveyed U.S. consumers said they “use or experiment with Generative AI (GenAI)”. The same survey found a more than five-fold increase in GenAI usage at work — from 6% (2023) to 34% (2025). But usage doesn’t equal comfort: the survey also revealed that 70% of respondents worry about data privacy and security when using digital services (including AI).

AI’s reach is already broad in nearly all aspects of daily life—job applications, benefits systems, skill building, public services, and daily decision-making. Without intentional public-sector leadership and resource investment, the “AI literacy gap” risks becoming the modern day digital divide.

Communities that fail to invest in AI risk locking residents out of economic mobility. Those that do invest will build workforce pipelines, innovation ecosystems, and public trust needed for the future.

The Journey: From Book Borrowers to AI Navigators

Municipalities once led the movement to make reading universal. Now they should lead again, by making AI literacy a baseline civic skill, accessible to all regardless of income, background, or education level.

AI literacy is not just about learning how to “talk to a chatbot.” It includes:

• Understanding what AI is—and isn’t
• Using AI safely and ethically
• Applying AI to solve real-life personal or work challenges
• Evaluating misinformation and AI-generated content
• Building confidence and trust in a world where automation is everywhere
• Leveraging AI to learn and develop new skills rather than simply prompting for answers

Steps Cities and Workforce Boards Can Take:

1. Place AI Navigators in Public Libraries and Career Centers
   Digital navigators have helped communities bridge the broadband gap throughout the 2000s. Using a similar model, AI Navigators can:
   • Teach the basics of AI tools
   • Offer “AI Labs” where residents bring real tasks to complete with advice and assistance
   • Help jobseekers create resumes, cover letters, and learning plans using AI
   • Support seniors, parents, youth, and workers with hands-on coaching tailored to individual needs and levels of understanding
2. Normalize AI Certifications as Civic Milestones
   Just as driver’s licenses and GEDs mark stages of adulthood, cities can promote:
   • “AI Essentials for Residents”
   • “AI Tools for Job Seekers” micro-credentials
   • “AI Use Cases for Small Businesses” workshops
3. Provide Accessible and Ongoing AI Learning Opportunities
   It is important that AI literacy is available to all members of the community. In order to meet the public where they are, communities should consider creative opportunities such as:
   • Library-hosted AI demo labs
   • Evening and weekend workshops for working adults
   • AI summer camps for youth
   • Open-access online courses curated by local staff
   • Employer-partnered upskilling for workers in specific industries or job types

Why Falling Behind Is Not an Option

AI is not neutral. Communities that lack access to AI literacy face real, long-term consequences:

• Employment: AI skills are increasingly required across most industries and roles—including administrative, retail, public services, and healthcare.
• Economic mobility: Research on digital equity shows that communities delivering broad digital literacy programs see significant increases in employability and wage growth.
• Civic participation: AI now shapes decisions about transportation, benefits eligibility, healthcare triage, and resource allocation. Without AI literacy, residents lack agency.
• Education systems: Students who understand AI will be effectively prepared for future learning pathways and careers.

Cities that invest in AI literacy become magnets for inclusive innovation—and those that don’t risk deepening disparities between neighborhoods, demographics, and generations.

Call to Action: For Civic Leaders, Educators, and Citizens

City Leaders

• Treat AI literacy as essential civic infrastructure.
• Fund AI programs alongside broadband and workforce development initiatives.
• Embed AI skills requirements and training pathways into government-funded programs such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA and broader local workforce strategies.

Libraries

• Establish AI help desks and drop-in labs.
• Train and empower librarians and community members as AI Navigators.
• Curate AI learning collections—just like books.

Workforce Boards & Educators

• Offer AI credentials and designed for job seekers and working adults.
• Make AI training available on evenings/weekends to support equity and access.
• Collaborate with employers to align training to real job requirements.

Citizens

• Claim your right to AI education.
• Use AI responsibly.
• Support your community by being curious, open, and thoughtful about how these tools shape the future.

The Opportunity in Front of Us

The next great public good isn’t a building or a utility.
It’s a skill—one that determines whether every resident can step confidently into the future.

“AI as a Library Card” is more than an analogy. It’s an invitation.

To build communities where everyone can learn, question, create, and participate in the world AI is shaping.
To treat AI readiness as civic readiness.
To open the doors of opportunity for all.

The future is arriving quickly.
Let’s enable everyone to get a card.