Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development Secretary Talks About AI Automation and Labor at Task Force Hearing

Tuesday, October 31st, 2023 -- 8:00 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) Governor Tony Evers' AI task force held its first meeting on Monday.

Governor Tony Evers' AI task force held its first meeting on Monday. Department of Workforce Development secretary Amy Pehachek says AI helped the state get out of its backlog of pandemic era unemployment claims by replacing the old unemployment system.

"Basically, I want you to picture the black screen with the green Blinky cursor, we have to press like f5 to navigate the screens. That's the technology the state of Wisconsin had."

Pehachek says she can see the work that advanced automation can do for systems like that, but she's concerned that this sort of automation can't keep up with Wisconsin's stagnant labor force.

Pehachek is unsure that advancements in automation can keep up with the needs for new employees. "Over the last 10 years here in Wisconsin, we've had net zero to negative emigration to our state, meaning more folks have left than come in. And all of that is putting pressure on our workforce."

Pehachek says her office found out first hand the power of advanced automation when it processed the entire backlog of pandemic era unemployment claims. "We needed to move down, obviously, a modernization path with our technology and keep moving forward. And since then, we have incorporated AI and many other functions."

Pehachek hopes Wisconsin businesses will look at using AI to automate data entry and other large scale data operations.

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