The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will generate unprecedented opportunities and challenges for employers and workers.

The accelerating pace of automation will likely lead to productivity increases on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution, while displacing tens of millions of American workers from their current occupations – a phenomenon known as TIDE, technology-induced displacement of employees.

Too often, news reports dramatically focus on AI and robots as job killers. Unfortunately, the debate over whether jobs eliminated will outnumber jobs created ignores two related and no less important questions:

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With the fast-paced arrival of innovative and transformative technologies, will workers whose jobs are most likely to be disrupted have the skills and training required for the new jobs being created?

Will employers be able to fill existing vacancies as this unstoppable transformation occurs?

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A Nationwide Effort

The Emma Coalition seeks to organize a nationwide effort and partnership among small and large American businesses and the organizations that represent them; representatives of organized labor; and nonprofit, research and academic institutions to prepare the workforce for the coming TIDE through education, training and engagement with policymakers. With proper preparation, employers and their workers can ride and thrive in TIDE. Without proper preparation, TIDE will overwhelm them.