Can Code CEO Annmarie Lanesey joined national experts at OTI’s “The AI Agenda” webinar to discuss implementation gaps, equity, and what it actually takes to build an AI-ready workforce.
Last month, Can Code Communities CEO and Founder Annmarie Lanesey joined a distinguished panel of digital equity and workforce development leaders for *The AI Agenda: Exploring the Federal Government’s Approach to AI Literacy and Use*, hosted by the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America.
The virtual conversation brought together Kyla Williams Tate (Director of Digital Equity, Cook County), Rachel Riggs (Sr. Technical Advisor, AI for Learning and Work, World Education/JSI), and Kara Kennedy (Founder, AI Literacy Institute), with moderator Jessica Dine (Policy Analyst, OTI). The panel dug into the federal government’s ambitious—and uneven—push toward national AI literacy. What follows are the themes that stood out.
A Framework Without a Funding Mechanism Is Just Guidance
The federal government has moved aggressively on AI adoption: an AI Action Plan, a National Policy Framework, a cross-agency talent strategy, and a Department of Labor AI literacy framework designed to cover all workers. On paper, it signals intentionality.
But several panelists raised a hard question: what does a framework actually do without accountability structures or funding attached to it?
AI Literacy Is Not Learning to Use a Chatbot
Annmarie pushed back on the idea that basic prompt literacy is the finish line.
“Learning to use a chatbot is a starting point—not a destination,” she said. “What we actually need people to understand is how these tools are built. How they learned what they know. What they do with the data you put into them. That is not advanced knowledge. That is baseline literacy for anyone who is going to use these tools in a job, in a business, or in daily life.”
She described a framework Can Code believes in: beginner through advanced, connected to real economic outcomes at every level. The reason this matters is not abstract. We are moving toward a world where workers are valued by how much they can extend their own cognitive capacity alongside digital and AI co-workers. The gap between someone with basic AI skills and someone with advanced ones is not a credential gap—it’s an earnings gap, and it’s growing.
She also made the case for building: “I ran a software development consulting practice. People used to pay significant money to have software built for them. That is now in the hands of anyone who can effectively use an AI tool. That is not a small shift. That is the entire software sector being democratized in real time.”
The Divide Is the Full Stack—Not Just Broadband
Annmarie told the story of N.T., one of Can Code’s early participants—a military veteran and person of color who had been out of the workforce for eight years. He was excelling in Can Code’s JavaScript software development class when his laptop broke. He stopped coming.
“That was it. That was the thing standing between him and a new career. Not ability. Not motivation. A broken laptop.”
Can Code followed up the next morning, loaned him a device, and he completed the program. He landed a job at a nationally recognized company through an apprenticeship designed for people without college degrees. A few years later, he was making over $100,000.
“His starting salary was $50,000. Four years later, he’s at $100K. Now think about that same man in today’s context—learning to work with the OpenAI or Anthropic API. Building things. The ceiling keeps rising for people who get the foundation.”
The AI divide is not a single gap. It’s layered—device, connectivity, digital fluency, AI skills. Remove any layer and the rest collapses. Policymakers who think the access problem has been solved because broadband infrastructure exists are missing the rest of the stack.
What Actual Implementation Looks Like
When asked what a national AI skilling strategy should look like, Annmarie was direct.
Deploy laptops and hotspots to anyone who needs them. Make programs free—because for people living in poverty, childcare and transportation alone make a training pathway unreachable. Deliver training where people are, from beginner digital skills through advanced AI literacy. Connect people to employers through partnerships and apprenticeships. Insure that workforce offices across the country treat digital and AI skills as a priority for every sector, not an add-on.
“Digital skills are the only workforce skill that has grown to this level of importance without a dedicated, stable funding stream,” she said. “Look at every other area of human need—housing, food security, education, healthcare. Nonprofits fill gaps that government doesn’t directly deliver, backed by public funding because the need is real and the market won’t meet it. Digital and AI skills are no different.”
“The cost of building a digital & AI skills funding stream is significantly less than many of the other areas where we invest public dollars. And the return on investment is not theoretical. We have seen it.”
What Comes Next
The panelists closed with a broader question about the future of work—automation, displacement, and what skills will matter in a world where human intelligence increasingly operates alongside machine intelligence.
Annmarie’s answer: “If the people building and shaping these tools all come from the same background, the same worldview, the same lived experience, we are going to get a very narrow version of the future. The tools we build reflect the people who build them. If we want AI that works for everyone, we need everyone at the table. That means the kid from Albany who never had a laptop. That means the veteran who was eight years out of the workforce. Their experiences and perspectives are not just worth including—they are essential.”
Can Code Communities has been delivering free, live cohort-based digital literacy and tech training to disadvantaged adults and you across upstate New York and Massachusetts for ten years. To learn more or get involved, visit https://cancode.