UPDATE: Fortune 50 tech company bringing regional hub to Louisville (PHOTOS)

Source: Louisville Business First | Haley Cawthon  | June 7, 2019

A Fortune 50 tech company is making Louisville its home for a regional tech hub.

The city will become home to a Microsoft hub for artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and data science, company and local officials announced at the new entrepreneurial hub in NuLu.

Louisville will serve as an urban laboratory, and city government will work with education, workforce and business partners to strengthen and diversify the city’s core industries, including health care and manufacturing, which face risk of automation from the progression of AI technology.

Jennifer Byrne, chief technology officer at Microsoft US, said Louisville is a great example of cities across the country that are reinventing themselves for the future.

“With artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, data science — these are all new technology concepts,” she said. “They are driving growth across our industries and we really appreciate the ability to partner with the city of Louisville.”

Byrne said Microsoft believes there will be more change in society in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 250 years.

“Where that change takes us, we don’t really know. There’s so much potential for us to reimagine ourselves and our communities, how we work and how we relate to each other,” she said. “There’s so much possibility for good.”

The AI Innovation Digital Alliance with Microsoft, in part, will help companies in vulnerable industries reskill and upskill their workforce to meet the changing demands of the 21st century economy.

“Artificial intelligence is the next frontier in technology, and through this collaboration with Microsoft, we will prepare our workforce for the tech revolution and create economic opportunity, while not losing sight of the need for equity within economic growth,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer in a news release. “We are excited to partner with Microsoft to ensure Louisville residents and businesses are ready for the future economy.”

Through the alliance, Microsoft will create and fund an AI, IoT and data science fellowship program, including providing training and equipment. The company will hire four fellows, which will work with nonprofit, education, startup and workforce development organizations and with area businesses to provide training and support.

The alliance also aims to bridge societal gaps and make technology inclusive and accessible for all communities through AI-applied research.

Dave Christopher, founder of AMPED Louisville, said he has worked in technology for 30 years and has worked with less than 30 black people.

“I often felt like a unicorn, but I wasn’t. I knew then and I knew now that there are thousands of people who look like me that are capable of succeeding in technology,” he said, noting he was self-taught because his parents couldn’t afford college. “If we sincerely want to change the overwhelming lack of diversity in technology and our communities that are in poverty, let’s give those people I call ‘nontraditional applicants’ a chance.”

Christopher said technology jobs start at a living wage and can take a family from government assistance to self-sufficiency.

Byrne said Microsoft will also host programs like DigiCamps, YouthSpark, Hack-a-thons and digital literacy workshops. The digital literacy workshops will be for parents, transitioning members of the workforce and local veterans.

Figures for Microsoft's total investment in Louisville were not available, but a company executive said it was a "pretty significant" number.

Additional activities that are a part of the AI Innovation Digital Alliance include:

  • Microsoft will establish a physical location in downtown Louisville.

  • Microsoft will partner with preschool through higher education providers on digital literacy training and, with Louisville Metro, will support the Digital Inclusion initiative to close the digital skills gap present in underinvested and disenfranchised communities.

  • Louisville Metro, Microsoft and the Brookings Institution will collaborate on a local strategy focused on the impacts of AI, IoT and data science technologies on communities and develop a playbook for how to prepare other communities for the changing economic landscape.

  • Microsoft will support AI-assisted applied research to seek solutions to community challenges such as racial disparities in environmental effects on human health and the cultural measures of trust, hope and belonging that impact employee health and talent retention.

  • Microsoft will support the local entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem through grants and other resources.

  • Louisville Metro will host a high-level AI, IoT and data science summit in fiscal 2020 and at least six other events supported by Microsoft.

Key stakeholders and potential areas for collaboration include:

  • Education partners: University of Louisville, The Center for Creative Place Healing, Jefferson County Public Schools, Bellarmine University, Jefferson Community and Technical College, Simmons College, Spalding University and Kentucky College of Art & Design

  • Workforce partners: KentuckianaWorks, KY FAME

  • Corporate partners: Humana StudioH, GE Appliances/FirstBuild, Louisville Healthcare CEO Council and Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership (LEAP)

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