Unlocking Scale: How Smarter Place-Based Strategies Can Future-Proof Youth Opportunity

Artificial Intelligence (AI), geopolitical shifts, and demographic change are forcing organizations, programs, and systems to adapt faster than ever before, on multiple levels. Our research with local and state innovators points to four building blocks for sustaining economic opportunity amid uncertainty: meeting basic needs, continuous learning and training, industry-driven work-based learning, and career coaching and mentoring. 

In June 2026, AIR and UpSkill America - Aspen Institute co-hosted a webinar that zooms in on the system level: what needs to change, where early solutions are emerging, and how to build lasting capacity for agility and resilience.

The session focused on levers that can unlock faster, more durable adaptation at scale:

• Systemic adaptation leveraging intermediaries for industry-driven work-based learning;
   
• AI-assisted benefits delivery using AI tools with frontline staff to personalize and simplify how people access basic needs and support; and
   
• AI-assisted reskilling and career connection providing AI-powered asynchronous tools to augment in person support for career readiness and employer connections. 

We then heard from funders on how they're approaching investments to scale this kind of innovation system-wide.

The conversation was honest about the urgency and anxiety in the field—disruption is real, and the economic transition ahead will be painful for many. But the goal is practical: cut through the noise, identify what actually works, and build levers that last. Attendees left with a clear picture of what funders and system leaders can do right now to support intermediaries and local innovators as engines of economic mobility.