New Jersey, Virginia Can Lead the Nation By Building ‘AI Resilience Cohorts’ to Develop Early-Career, State Talent Pipelines
Many states are introducing AI policies and task forces, but lack the “AI-native” personnel to build and maintain initiatives. To address this in the short term, states should establish AI Resilience Cohorts to embed early-career technologists in key offices to support state AI initiatives. Right now, Virginia and New Jersey have the opportunity to take the lead.
Using Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Governor’s Reserve Funds, we propose that all states launch cohorts of six, high-value, 10-month placements. To ensure long-term sustainability, states should also reform their talent pipeline infrastructure by prioritizing early-career entry points. Recent shifts in federal AI guidance highlight the need to prioritize responsible AI policy development within state and local government contexts. With two new gubernatorial administrations in New Jersey and Virginia, the current moment is a prime opportunity to prioritize early-career talent development as a key lever for state-level AI resilience.
Challenge and Opportunity
The recent availability of Large Language Models, in particular, is revolutionizing how the public sector thinks about service delivery. Across party lines, policymakers have aligned around “trustworthy AI” as a shared priority, and states have moved quickly to stand up AI governance efforts in response. As of 2025, at least 33 states had a task force, working group, or council dedicated to exploring AI use. Several government entities, like the GovAI Coalition, have emerged as leaders in this area. However, implementing recommendations requires additional capacity, and most of these initiatives remain in the early stages. Without personnel who can build, evaluate, and maintain AI systems from within government, even well-designed frameworks risk stalling.
Addressing AI Talent Capacity Gap
This capacity gap reflects a misalignment between how states recruit technical talent and what the evolving workforce can offer. As early adopters move into scaling their AI efforts, they risk compromising future service delivery and tech capacity without a consistent infusion of “AI-native talent”, or talent who default to AI-assisted approaches to solving problems and advancing work. Creating an AI-native talent pipeline not only equips states to build equitable tools that improve service delivery but also to sustain this work by investing in a diverse, technically aligned workforce. The urgency of this gap is compounded by an impending workforce transition. We have officially entered what some are calling the Peak 65 Zone, with more than 4.1 million people reaching the retirement age each year from 2024 through 2027. Many state and local government personnel expect to face the largest wave of retirements in the next few years. Without investing in talent pipelines now, governments can expect even greater challenges in filling roles currently held by experienced public servants.
Early-career technologists are a solution to both problems. Young people are, and will continue to be, the builders and users of AI. Younger people are also more likely to have relevant, updated skills and the need for entry-level employment. Engaging them in state AI policy development and implementation not only addresses the immediate technical capacity gap but also builds long-term institutional knowledge and public trust. This is particularly relevant for younger residents who will be most affected by how governments choose to deploy these technologies. Excluding them from this process limits true inclusivity and, consequently, trust in state government AI policy. States should strive for resilience in scaling their AI efforts, where agencies have the capacity to responsibly build, maintain, and adapt systems over time. Investing in early-career, AI-native talent is an essential step towards achieving this.
Our recommendation is for states to leverage their WIOA Governor’s Reserve Funds to pilot AI Resilience Cohorts, embedding early-career talent across key AI-ready agencies. As outlined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Governors can set aside up to 15 percent of their total Title I (services to youth, adults, and dislocated workers) allotment for state-wide activities. For reference, in program year 2023, New Jersey and Virginia received total Title I allocations of $86 million and $41 million, respectively.
Why New Jersey and Virginia
We have chosen New Jersey and Virginia as recommended states because new administrations have executive authorities, including executive orders and reorganization powers, that do not require new budget legislation. Additionally, agencies may be more receptive to new, innovative initiatives early in a term. The administrations in these states can use existing funding structures to engage early-career technologists. Successful implementation in either state will then serve as a model for adoption by other states. By using short-term, high-impact placements, states can deploy a low-risk proof-of-concept to address the talent gap and lay the foundation for long-term workforce innovation, all while the window for new administrative initiatives remains open.
Plan of Action
Recommendation 1. Pilot an Inaugural AI Resilience Cohort (Short-Term)
We recommend that the states launch a cohort of six early-career technologists (each with a $65,000 stipend, adjusted to reflect local labor market conditions) embedded across key agencies to advance AI safety and resilience over a 10-month period. (See FAQs for more on compensation.) Six placements were chosen to ensure coverage across the AI governance functions outlined below, while keeping the pilot investment manageable for a new administration. Guidance on best practices in early-career development can be gleaned from existing programs in the nonprofit industry, including organizations such as Coding it Forward and TechCongress, as well as in-house programs in local governments, such as Miami-Dade County’s Information Technology Department. Strategically aligned offices will lead by leveraging their missions and the growing pressure to prepare for the future workforce. In New Jersey, the recently established New Jersey Innovation Authority codified the Office of Innovation (OOI) as the primary authority on technology innovation. OOI already has a track record of engaging early-career technical talent through short-term partnerships with external organizations and should continue to build on this momentum. In Virginia, the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA) oversees the state’s IT strategy, operations, and innovation efforts, and the Office of Regulatory Management manages the state’s AI Task Force. In a collaborative effort, these agencies are best positioned to lead this state’s pilot.
Initially, states should allocate a total pilot investment of at least $450,000 ($390,000 for personnel and $60,000 for program administration), with exact costs varying by local labor market conditions and administrative structures. The WIOA Governor’s Reserve Fund can serve as the primary funding source, as its purpose includes funding innovative statewide programs that address the Governor’s priorities. Precedent exists for using these dollars to fund personnel-based initiatives: Washington state used reserve funds to provide job coaching and financial assistance through its Economic Security for All Program, which has since been codified into law. A 2025 report by the National Governors’ Association found that 54% of states are using some of their reserve dollars to seed innovative pilots and recommended that more states adopt this approach.
The 10-month cycle provides a necessary two-month buffer for evaluation and conversion tasks, where applicable. The resulting outcome would be six placements providing technical capacity, with a strong pathway to full-time conversion, and increased executive buy-in to invest in long-term sustainability. The exact cohort roles can vary to accommodate agency-specific needs. At a high level, states should use existing AI governance frameworks to identify where pilot placements can have the most impact. Using the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Policy Standards for the Utilization of Artificial Intelligence as an example, suggested placements include:
- Impact and Ethics Evaluation. Addresses bias mitigation and algorithmic impacts.
- Data Readiness and Governance. Addresses data quality and management issues.
- Procurement and Vendor Liaison. Addresses procurement and vendor accountability.
- Trust and Transparency. Addresses inventory management and public transparency.
- Safety and Security. Addresses potential vulnerabilities through adversarial testing.
- Performance Monitoring. Addresses continuous monitoring and evaluation.
Recommendation 2. Reform Talent Pipeline Infrastructure (Long-Term)
Long-term resilience requires that states create entry points for early-career talent at every stage of AI readiness. To facilitate lasting change, states must also reform their hiring infrastructure to ensure that full-time roles are available for early-career talent to step into. While many entities lack sufficient funding for full-time employees, there are still actionable steps that can modernize how states recruit and hire technical talent. By standardizing technical job roles to include “Junior Technologist” levels, states can cultivate pipelines beyond executive hiring. An immediate suggestion to achieve this would be to formalize long-term partnerships with talent intermediaries and universities to manage recruitment and support, providing a consistent stream of talent into state governments. Here, the lead agencies and the Civil Service Commission/HR leadership must partner with the Governor’s Offices to address the barrier of budget allocation and prioritization of early-career talent. Building a sustainable, diverse, and AI-native workforce development culture requires aligning HR practices with the state’s technical needs and the reality of our changing workforce.
For states that are not yet ready to support full-time junior roles, there are still ways to create entry points. Requiring the engagement of a junior technologist with each new executive technologist hired builds early-career opportunity into AI initiatives, regardless of a state’s digital maturity. This is especially useful to teams with limited full-time budgeted positions. Each state has its own unique avenues for bringing in short-term talent, whether it’s through university-sponsored internships, externally funded fellowships, or contractors. While states work on the infrastructure for more direct pathways, utilizing these short-term avenues to prioritize early-career engagement is a significant step in the right direction. Existing programs like Coding it Forward have demonstrated that prioritizing mentorship and career exposure not only enhances the performance of technical talent but also creates a more resilient government workforce by aligning the career trajectories of early-career talent with the mission-critical needs of state agencies.
Conclusion
New gubernatorial administrations should prioritize investing in AI-native talent for AI initiatives to build trust with young residents and ensure these states have strong technical pipelines to sustain current and future technical innovations. A $450,000 pilot from the WIOA Governor’s Reserve Fund for six, 10-month placements is a strategic, timely, and cost-effective action. The 10-month structure is specifically designed to prioritize technical impact and a pilot evaluation period before potentially hiring talent full-time, guaranteeing states access to excellent local talent for their long-term needs. To sustain this effort in the long term, states must also commit to updating talent pipeline infrastructure to align HR practices with state talent needs and the reality of the workforce in the age of AI.
Many states are introducing AI policies and task forces, but lack the “AI-native” personnel to build and maintain initiatives. To address this in the short term, states should establish AI Resilience Cohorts to embed early-career technologists in key offices to support state AI initiatives. Right now, Virginia and New Jersey have the opportunity to take […]
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