Commission Heartland-specific AI adoption data collection covering agriculture and the smallest firms¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

For policymakers and funders, the brief recommends commissioning a Heartland-specific survey covering agriculture and the smallest firms, since Census BTOS excludes farms entirely and underrepresents small employers even where state data exists. It also recommends prioritizing funding toward early-augmentation occupations over displacement-trending ones, revisiting criteria annually as data updates, and funding data collection to track AI adoption locally as it happens.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• New data collection because BTOS excludes farm businesses from its sample entirely, undercounting agricultural employers by design

Constraints¶

• Farm-sector employment averages just 0.22% of state employment across the 19 states, about 77,000 workers total, so the gap matters more for local economies than the regional labor market picture

Target Learners¶

• Learners in Heartland CTE pathways, including agricultural career tracks

Target Learning Goals¶

• Keeping CTE pathways aligned with locally accurate labor-market intelligence on AI adoption

Related Strategies¶

• Build direct employer-listening channels and AI-specific advisory structures for small and mid-sized firms

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Jacobs, B. (2026, September). Task automation, worker augmentation: Opportunities for career and technical education in the heartland. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/317