How the AI Action Plan Reshapes Power and Why Black America Can’t Afford to Be Passive
With 4+ million jobs on the table, the AI Action Plan isn’t a threat, it’s the clearest roadmap we’ve ever had
Vonn
Jul 24, 2025
The Moment in Front of Us
When you study American economic history, every boom era is paired with a quiet, simultaneous story about who got left out and why. From the industrial revolution to the internet age, access was never neutral. Black America was often late to the table of opportunity not because of lack of talent, but because of restricted entry points and cultural misunderstandings.Today, that pattern can break.
We live in an era where government policy is published online in real time.
Where playbooks for wealth, business, and innovation are no longer locked behind MBA programs or insider networks.
Where the United States has published an AI Action Plan that outlines exactly where the next wave of jobs, industries, and investments will be.
For the first time, the blueprint is public, and that means the gate is open, for now.
A Look from Inside the Room
After 15 years in engineering, I have watched the field evolve from being rewarded for knowing C++, Java & Python to now having AI tools that build web apps and marketing campaigns without writing a line of code.We are witnessing a convergence: tools are replacing tasks; agents are replacing assistants, & APIs are becoming coworkers. The technically inclined are clinging to popular AI YouTube channels and X accounts for updates and trainings on how to keep their job; and most of the general public has no clue what is actually going on at the granular level.
This moment, as chaotic as it seems, is a blank slate, where the foundational rules are actively being rewritten; and no matter your race or educational background, many people are in limbo.
In 2023, McKinsey & Co released a report titled "The Economic State of Black America: What is and What Could Be". It highlighted that 4.5 million jobs held by Black Americans are at high risk of being displaced by AI.
But that is only part of the story.
While most headlines focus on loss and displacement, I found myself asking a different set of questions:
Because from where I stand, this is not a collapse. It is a convergence:
- A fair playing ground emerging not through social policy, but through systemic entropy
- 24/7 access to high quality, institutional grade intelligence, where the algorithm does not know or care what you look like
- The flattening of gatekeeping across capital, knowledge, and opportunity creation, for those who know how to research and remain curious
- An open invitation to build on the edge, not just use what is handed down
So What Now
If we’re serious about competing in the AI era, the Black community must move from passive observation to active positioning. It has been projected that we will not compete in this intellectual era, and we have to denounce that socialization.We’ve inherited cultural frameworks around money, career, and success that were designed for survival, not for scale; and we have to shed that mindset as it won’t carry us through this shift.
Dopamine cheap risks are not the armor to be used when fighting against speed, daily innovative developments, and globalization.
This push forward demands urgency, requiring coordinated moves with precision; that benefit our community economically, strategically, socially and intellectually.
It’s time to adjust our stance; from waiting outside the rooms asking for access, to sitting inside, shaping capital, policy, and platform direction because we have the skills and education in the numbers needed to truly compete.
As we rebound from the remnants of slaughtered DEI narratives, that placed us as the unqualified poster child, we have to view AI advancement as the opportunity that allows the black community to rewrite our economic and professional identity.
AI cannot become the next stage where the black community shows up first and benefits least due to being the social justice door mat for others. It’s time to start thinking of our community’s progress first, capital enhancement, and how each person doing their part contributes for a better future for our youth. The realities of not doing so at this moment in time and for the future, are too grim to consider otherwise.
When black professionals are resourced with real intelligence, applicable skills, and clear strategy, our capacity is not just competitive, its exceptional. It’s important to remember that in this time and remain curious. The key to AI understanding is at your fingertips daily.
This is the time to leverage every open source curriculum, every free cohort, and every training pathway that did not exist 10 years ago.
And if we are honest, most Millennials and Gen Zer’s are should not be afraid of this wave. We were raised with tech. The gap is smaller than most people think, but we have to get further exposed.
With the right environments, understand of our country’s AI Plan and a 12 month upskill plan, we can reclaim more than jobs, we can reclaim leverage.
Where the Opportunities Are
AI isn’t just one industry. As we continue to move forward, we will see the intersection of AI on every industry and job type. This is a great opportunity as it allows the black community to upskill and target new opportunities in existing industries but also gives access to a range of new opportunities across skill levels and technical adeptness in new developing industries with expanding & stretch opportunities.Sectors with expanding entry points:
- AI for Healthcare: diagnostics, patient monitoring, AI driven clinical decision support
- AI for Finance: fraud detection, credit access, personalized financial tools
- AI for Cybersecurity: threat detection, incident response
- AI for Education: personalized learning platforms, tutoring agents
- AI for Operations: process optimization, predictive maintenance, global operations
- AI for Manufacturing: intelligent automation, digital twins, real-time defect tracking, robotics
- AI for Supply Chain: demand forecasting, risk mitigation, route optimization
- AI in Public Sector & Policy: AI governance, ethics, auditability
- AI for Infrastructure & Grid Tech: smart grids, load balancing, outage prediction
What the AI Action Plan Says and Why It Matters Now
The U.S. government’s AI Action Plan isn’t just a policy roadmap; it’s a geostrategic declaration. The document lays out three national pillars that will define how American power is structured, exported, and secured in the AI era:- Innovation
Federal support will flow into advanced model development, AI specific R&D, new model evaluation techniques, and critical areas like biosecurity, climate modeling, and national defense.
Translation:
If you’re in science, data, software, engineering, or policy: this is your green light. Our government plans to outpace China by accelerating experimentation and funding high stakes AI science.
Opportunity for Black professionals:- Federal research labs, public private R&D partnerships
- Bio AI (AI in biotech, health equity, drug development)
- Community access to pilot programs, startup grants, and cooperative innovation hubs
- Cybersecurity roles (entry level to expert)
- Infrastructure
The government will expand compute resources, open source foundational models, national data corpuses, and interoperable benchmarks. It’s also prioritizing semiconductor production and workforce upskilling for “AI ready infrastructure.”
Translation:
They’re not waiting for Silicon Valley to build it, the government is tapped into big tech like never before, and they are ready to open the purse to make sure US sets the global standard for AI going forward.
Opportunity for Black professionals:- AI data pipeline jobs (curation, cleaning, tagging, governance)
- Compute and chip industry training via CHIPS Act programs
- National AI apprenticeships tied to digital infrastructure projects
- Programs to get underserved communities access to compute and AI tools
- International Diplomacy and Security
The US is formalizing partnerships with like minded nations on AI safety, surveillance, and security. It’s also creating new export standards, multilateral research agreements, and policies to mitigate risk.
Translation:
AI is the new oil, and America wants to control the rules of trade, usage, and trust.
Opportunity for Black professionals:- Remote roles in global standards, policy, and compliance
- Government contracts for technical security and AI verification
- Export focused small businesses aligned with national security directives
- Engagement in the U.S. Digital Corps or other civic tech initiatives
- Roles in supply chain, AI governance and AI quality
Most people will read the document as a government update. But the Black community must read it as an economic decoder.
The plan is not about replacing people. It’s about reorganizing power and capital, across infrastructure, data, labor, and global diplomacy.
This means:
- You don’t need to be an AI engineer to build value.
- You don’t need a Stanford degree to access this shift.
- You don’t need a connection at OpenAI to learn what’s coming.
The Stakes Are High, But So Is the Opportunity
According to McKinsey & Company, up to $43 billion in Black wages could be lost by 2030 due to AI led labor shifts. The primary exposure lies in roles historically overrepresented by Black workers: administrative support, food service, transportation, and retail. These are sectors now rapidly undergoing AI driven restructuring, leaving millions of workers vulnerable to displacement, not due to lack of talent, but lack of positioning.However, data must be contextualized.
When Black professionals are resourced with equal access to intelligence and opportunity, performance is not only competitive; it is exceptional.
Too often, the bottom 10 percent of our community is compared to the top 10 percent of others. This moment offers something rare: a structural shift that creates space for our entire range, from the overlooked and underinvested to the technically gifted and underutilized, to rise simultaneously.
The bottom 10 percent can now access tools that were not even available to the middle class a decade ago.
The middle can scale.
The top can lead and reinvest.
So how do we fight back against the projected losses?
By aiming directly at the gaps that drive them and converting them into lanes of opportunity.
Job displacement becomes job redefinition.
- A warehouse technician becomes an AI enhanced logistics operator
- A data entry clerk becomes a no code workflow architect
- A call center rep becomes a conversational AI trainer or evaluator
- Build businesses using AI assistants to reduce time to market
- Monetize AI literacy by consulting locally on adoption strategies
- Train AI on overlooked cultural contexts and dialects for underserved groups
- Fine tune models using open datasets
- Join beta feedback groups for startups and LLM labs
- Push for evaluation metrics that reflect diverse use cases
The question is not whether we are at risk. The question is: How fast can we convert risk into reinvention?
What To Do Now: A Strategic Response Framework
Competing in the AI economy requires a calibrated strategy: equal parts foundational understanding, ecosystem awareness, and skill acquisition. Below is a three phase playbook designed for individuals and institutions seeking not just to adapt, but to advance.1. Build Functional Literacy in AI Tools
Start with hands on proficiency. Master tools that mirror real world workflows.
- Recommended platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Gamma
- Key workflows to simulate: Knowledge extraction, spreadsheet automation, presentation generation, meeting summarization
2. Engage in Structured Learning
Leverage free and institution-backed AI learning initiatives to bridge the skill gap.
- NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute: Industry-grade AI fundamentals
- Google Cloud Skills Boost: Applied AI with cloud integration
- Amazon ML University: Business-focused AI for operational scale
- Oracle Cert Prep: Free certification pathways with foundational depth
- OpenAI & Hugging Face: Ethical use, prompt engineering, and model sandboxing
3. Construct a 6–12 Month Adaptive Learning Plan
Your plan should not be static; it should evolve with both your role and the AI landscape.
- Foundational: Intro to AI, ethics, responsible use, human-in-the-loop design
- Tactical: No code automation, Python APIs, low code deployments
- Industry aligned: AI in healthcare, supply chain, education, finance, or manufacturing
Final Word: A Time Limited Window
This isn’t about fear or playing catch up. This is about structural convergence, a moment where Black America must step out of reactive cycles and into strategic posture.We’ve waited generations for proximity, access, and the right timing.
Now we have all three.
The only remaining question is: Will we claim this shift as our launchpad, or get buried beneath it like every cycle before?
