This content is sponsored by EagleBank and was originally published on WTOP.
“Our region is undergoing a fairly significant transformation,” said Jack McDougle, the President and CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, “probably the greatest transformation it’s ever seen.”
The reasons: major shifts in the federal government and the rise of artificial intelligence.
However, McDougle believes government restructuring actually presents an opportunity.
“For the longest time, our region has aspired to develop an economy that wasn’t quite as reliant on the federal government… this is accelerating it.”
“Our region comes to this with a significant resource base,” he said. That includes a highly skilled workforce, a significant university network and other types of research and development activities.
McDougle adds that this region boasts “the third most productive biotech corridor in the country.”
“We’re the fifth largest recipient of venture capital money in the country,” he said.
Further, he states the region will still have a strong presence in the hospitality and tourism area. “If you think about our cultural assets in this region, and our monuments and our parks, that still is a significant draw for a global audience,” he said. “It still will be a pretty broad-based economy.”
Finally, some federal employees are leaving their jobs and starting their own businesses, “which is pretty interesting,” he said.
While those changes are the largely end result of political actions, there are also concerns that A.I. could affect the local economy.
Artificial intelligence itself may not be coming for your job, McDougle said, “but somebody who is equipped with artificial intelligence will be.”
“So it’s in everyone’s interest to figure out how it is that they will work with, use and learn to coexist with artificial intelligence.”
The region’s many small businesses could stand to benefit from A.I.
For businesses grappling with talent issues, “utilizing artificial intelligence now can make them more effective, quicker, (and) more productive with their current staff,” McDougle said.
“The challenge, though, is how do they really adopt those tools? How do they use those tools, and how do they invest in them?”
Despite all the upheaval, McDougle describes himself as optimistic about the region, long-term, because of the resources we have.
“And when you think about…deploying those resources more effectively, we’d be untouchable.”
Those resources include not only access to the federal government, but also “something that’s different about our workforce.”
“Our workforce is a little different because it’s mission driven,” McDougle said. “It’s civic-oriented.”
“And so if we can get out in front on the policy side, the regulatory side, the technology side, the capital and investment side, that’s a really unique combination that no one else has.”
