New York's FutureWorks Commission plans to deliver recommendations by the end of December on how the state should respond to artificial intelligence's effects on jobs. Gov. Kathy Hochul said the panel met Tuesday after holding listening sessions with workers, unions and other stakeholders across the state.
The commission has not finalized policy proposals. Hochul said its recommendations will help shape her administration's next steps and inform the policy agenda she develops for her next State of the State address.
Job changes and worker protections
The panel is examining which jobs and regions are being affected by AI and how the state can track those shifts. It is also considering training and placement for workers whose jobs change, ways to improve job quality, social safety-net protections, economic growth and support for small businesses.
Hochul said the state does not yet know all the ways AI will affect workers. In a transcript of her remarks, she described four broad tasks: measuring effects on jobs, supporting training or retraining, keeping the safety net flexible, and helping residents benefit from the technology.
A listening session last month included women working in fields that may be reshaped by AI. The governor's office identified administrative, clerical and customer-service roles as examples of jobs whose tasks could change. The commission's work is meant to test those concerns against the experience of workers and employers before it recommends action.
The panel includes labor, business, technology and research representatives. Hochul named former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, researcher Molly Kinder and TIAA leader Thasunda Brown Duckett among its co-chairs. Its recommendations are proposals, not enacted worker protections.
Existing AI rules and data center pause
The governor placed the workforce work alongside the state's Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, known as the RAISE Act. Her office said large frontier AI developers must register with the state beginning in November, with broader transparency, safety and incident-reporting requirements taking effect in January 2027. Critical safety incidents are subject to a 72-hour reporting requirement under the law.
The state has also temporarily paused certain discretionary environmental permits for new hyperscale data centers for up to a year while it develops a regulatory framework. That is a pause on specified state permits, not a blanket prohibition on all data-center construction. Hochul said the state has completed a Community Investment Framework intended to guide local governments in negotiations with developers.
The governor did not announce an immediate change to a particular Finger Lakes project or employer at Tuesday's meeting. The commission's statewide recommendations could eventually affect workers and businesses in the region, but their details will not be known until the panel reports.
New York has separately invested in Empire AI, a $500 million partnership centered on academic computing at the University at Buffalo. The governor's office also said the state is expanding responsible-AI training and tools to more than 100,000 state employees. Those initiatives are already underway and are distinct from the commission's still-pending recommendations.
Hochul said the state should both protect workers at risk of displacement and help employees and small businesses use new technology. Whether the commission's eventual proposals lead to legislation, regulation or new funding will depend on the recommendations and later state decisions.
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