How Rural Pennsylvania Can Advance With AI
An observer could describe rural Pennsylvania, largely the central part – minus some exclaves of technocratic urbanization like State College – in the following candid terms. The beautiful Allegheny Ridge stands as almost a monument to the tenacious towns nestled below – places like Hollidaysburg, Cresson, Bedford, Huntingdon, and the smaller surrounding communities serving as the ultimate testament to perseverance and strength against time, just like the coniferous mountains surrounding these towns. While key industries like steel and railroad constructed these towns when nascent, the decades since have seen industry plummet. With the loss of industry came the internal migration of people. Despite these challenges, the citizens who stay true to their cities prove a powerful tale of resilience. When these industries left, they adapted, evolved, and overcame, just like a tree shedding its colorful leaves in autumn with the promise of dark green returning come spring.
Just as in times prior, technology filled the porous gaps vacated by the former industries. While some feared the changes, many adopted them. An example: Sheetz, the gas station hailing from Altoona, adopted MTO touch screen kiosks in 1994, pioneering this technology in their market and niche. Today, Sheetz serves as a huge economic driver for the Altoona area, specifically by virtue of employing the second-largest workforce in Blair County. While steam engines powered the economy of Altoona, when the locomotives halted and that sector of the economy evaporated, the Sheetz family stepped up to innovate and employ so many in the area.
Now, places in Central Pennsylvania face a new, emerging technology like none before: artificial intelligence (AI). This rapidly advancing service is so relevant that U.S. Sen. David McCormick hosted a bipartisan AI conference that politicians from all ends of the spectrum, including both President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro, attended. During this summer summit, President Trump announced that over $90 billion would enter the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for AI development and research. This announcement begs the question, specifically for areas like the ones described earlier: how will this affect the economies and the people in Central Pennsylvania?
Post-industrial municipalities boast robust economies for many retail, hospitality, and other entry-level jobs. The bygone era of manufacturing, which defined cities like Johnstown and Indiana, still rears its head in the nostalgic conversations with residents of these towns who lived during their peaks. However, like the peeling paint and crumbling buildings that once hosted world-class industry, their unabashed love in these conversations always ends with a dour outlook for the future. The addition of AI only furthers this despair, as the crescendos to these soliloquies typically happen.
While top sectors of employment, places like the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Wal-Mart, Sheetz, and community banks may seem like workplaces resistant to AI, the truth remains that this technological disruption could indeed influence work patterns. In the view of many, however, the short-to-medium term implications of AI prove more beneficial to workers. In addition to the Sheetz modernization example, Wal-Mart recently revealed its large AI-integration program that will create a more streamlined workday for its associates. AI will aid task management for employees and managers. This will eliminate nearly sixty minutes of planning time and optimize shifts for workers and managers. A company as large as Wal-Mart hires people who speak many languages, and AI will help with communication for their associates as well.
In August 2024, UPMC published a report brimming with enthusiasm for the upcoming AI integration into its healthcare system. The Center for Connected Medicine (CCM) at UPMC surveyed top health executives, and an overwhelming 85% listed AI as the technology they were most excited about seeing introduced to the industry. AI will offer opportunities for people to work more efficiently and, with these cost savings, amplify the business prospects of their company and earn more money for themselves.
While change often casts a shadow of uncertainty, and with that uncertainty evoking fear, it makes sense that people in areas like Central Pennsylvania would approach this emerging technology apprehensively. However, big employers in the area seem to nod to AI enhancing rather than replacing the workforce for these crucial sectors of these local economies. Just as these areas adapted and evolved following the flight of steel, the decline of railroads, and the closure of coal plants, I believe that AI will propel these places and their people to the next generation of work. As these major employers embrace these changes, so should the people of these counties.
