Workers Who Engage With AI Early Won't Be Replaced By It

In the mid-1920s, while Tulsa was cementing its status as the Oil Capital of the World, my family was farming pastures along South Lewis Avenue on the city’s outskirts.

They were farmers in the middle of a global energy boom. Close enough to see the derricks, but far enough away to be uncertain what it meant for them.

I think about that history when I consider what Tulsa’s workers are facing now: an economy being reshaped by artificial intelligence.

The physical infrastructure is already arriving. More than $3 billion in data center investment is breaking ground in Tulsa County.

With Black Tech Street’s partnership with Nvidia and with Microsoft, Tulsa is starting to assemble the pieces of a broader AI economy.

But infrastructure and momentum are not the same as readiness.

Without a workforce prepared to meet this moment, Tulsa risks watching this wave of opportunity pass it by.

A recent Accenture report found that 63% of employers cite AI-related skill gaps as the primary barrier to adopting AI technologies.

The workers in highest demand won’t simply be technical experts. They’ll be nurses, project managers, and logistics experts who can pair their professional judgment with AI tools.

People who know their work deeply and can put new technology to use within it.

Upskilling is the process of learning new, relevant skills to stay competitive and grow professionally.

For Tulsa, it is how an AI boom becomes broadly shared prosperity rather than a windfall for a select few.

Efforts like Tulsa Community College’s new Skills Lab are beginning to build that bridge.

The programs are free, flexible, and open to everyone - from beginners to experienced professionals who want to add new skills without leaving their current job.

And because AI is showing up in every field - health care, marketing, logistics, finance - the training has to connect to real work.

TCC Skills Lab partners with local employers to create work-based learning opportunities, where people learn on the job while businesses adapt alongside them.

This transition is not without precedent.

An entire generation of workers adapted when computers entered the workplace.

Tools that once seemed foreign - spreadsheets, email, search engines - became as routine as a morning coffee.

The workers who engage with AI early won’t be replaced by it. They’ll be the ones who shape how it gets used.

Every generation of this city has been asked to adapt to an economy it didn’t invent. The ones who thrived didn’t wait to see how it turned out. Neither should we.

This article was originally published in the Tulsa World.