Letter to the Editor: Ann Arbor Should Give AI Trainees Real Decisions

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Ph.D.

Washtenaw Community College’s FAME apprenticeship combines classroom study with more than 1,800 hours of paid work experience. That model matters even more as employers automate routine knowledge work.

Stanford’s August employment update found employment among U.S. workers ages 22–25 in highly AI-exposed occupations is about 19 percent below the trend for similarly aged workers in less-exposed occupations. The gap is showing up mainly through reduced hiring.

Ann Arbor employers should redesign the first job instead of deleting it. Let AI prepare the initial spreadsheet, summary or code scaffold. Then require junior workers to identify exceptions, test assumptions, explain recommendations and make supervised decisions. Senior employees should review those decisions and gradually raise the stakes.

The metric should be time to independent judgment. When employers measure that alongside hours saved, AI can accelerate apprenticeship rather than erase it.