A newly released report from the Brookings Institution finds that Milwaukee is still in early stages when it comes to AI adoption and readiness while Madison is an emerging hub for the technology. The report, titled “Mapping the AI economy: Which regions are ready for the next technological leap?”, ranks all U.S. metro areas into
A newly released report from the Brookings Institution finds that Milwaukee is still in early stages when it comes to AI adoption and readiness while Madison is an emerging hub for the technology.
The report, titled “Mapping the AI economy: Which regions are ready for the next technological leap?”, ranks all U.S. metro areas into six tiers of AI economic readiness: "superstars," "star hubs," "emerging centers," "focused movers," "nascent adopters" and "others."
Brookings Institution researchers measured each metro area’s overall AI readiness by examining the availability of AI talent, the accessibility of AI innovation and innovation structure, and the actual adoption of AI by organizations.
“The emergence of AI as a general-purpose technology presents an inflection point for regional economic development in the United States,” the report says.
Milwaukee is ranked as a nascent adopter which shows “moderate performance” across all three pillars.
“The nascent adopter cluster consists of 79 metro areas with relatively limited footholds in the AI ecosystem,” reads the report.
[caption id="attachment_616335" align="aligncenter" width="979"] Chart courtesy of the Brookings Institution.[/caption]
Emerging, nascent and star hubs have similar rates of AI adoption but varying talent and innovation scores. Madison has risen in the rankings to become an emerging hub.
Several noncoastal metro areas, including Madison, now rank in the top quartile on at least two out of three AI readiness pillars, which indicates emerging tech hubs outside of traditional areas like San Francisco and New York.
Ten metro areas including Madison form a talent and innovation cohort, according to the report. These areas rank highly when it comes to readily available talent and innovation resources, a critical component needed to help catalyze AI adoption.
Altogether, nascent adopters including Milwaukee account for 18% of the nation’s metro area employment as measured by job postings but generated just 11.2% of metro area AI job postings.
This shows their “considerable AI capacity and their relative underdevelopment,” according to the report. Milwaukee ranks highly within the nascent adopters category with more than 800 job postings.
Nascent adopters have “limited strengths” that mainly focus on business adoption, according to the report. The group supplies 16.7% of the country’s computer science bachelor’s degree students and 8.9% of the country’s computer science Ph. D graduates.
“When looking at the density of these talent measures within the group, all fall below the national average,” according to the report. “This reflects middling talent pipelines: The data show steady streams of graduates, but fewer specialists than are accumulating in the other clusters.”
Nascent adopters do, however, show strength in adopting AI technologies. Areas in this category score, on average, 4.1% on AI-use metrics compared to the national average of 4.2%. When it comes to cloud readiness, nascent adopters score an average of 22.2% compared to the national average of 20.4%
“As relatively balanced midrange performers, these communities are strengthening their talent pipelines, building innovation capacity, and beginning to adopt AI in their business sectors,” according to the report. “Their rapid growth in AI job postings from small bases suggests plenty of runway ahead—if investments continue flowing into their higher education talent hubs, university labs, and digital infrastructure to turn potential into real AI muscle."
Suggested strategies
The report suggests a boost in national research and development funding unrelated to defense; expanding other shared research and computational resources; and additional funding for AI curriculum development and research at higher education institutions.
While the U.S. is the current leader in AI research and development, the report explains recent data shows the country is not investing enough money to maintain its position in the field.
China is expected to see an 86% compound annual growth rate in generative AI investments from 2022 to 2027. U.S. government investment in AI research has decreased from $3.21 billion in 2023 to $2.98 billion in 2024.
“Against this backdrop, federal AI research funding trends are concerning,” the report says.
The report also calls on the federal government to “do what it can” to facilitate strategic data center development. The creation of AI economic zones to streamline development is one suggestion.
Already, Wisconsin is in the midst of a boom in data center development with Microsoft investing $3.3 billion to build a data center complex in Mount Pleasant and additional projects slated for Port Washington, Beaver Dam and the Town of Vienna in Dane County.
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