New Jersey is at an inflection point on artificial intelligence, and the decisions being made right now will shape whether the state leads the next decade of innovation or watches it happen somewhere else. We can either approach the conversation thoughtfully, based on facts and community input, or cede the conversation to doomsday headlines and fear, drive builders out of the state, and leave workers and small businesses to face the AI transition alone.
In recent months, the state has seen a wave of municipal bans on data centers, a coalition of more than 60 organizations calling on Governor Sherrill to pause AI data center approvals, and a bill to eliminate the $250 million in AI-related tax incentives New Jersey put in place just two years ago.
Let me say this clearly: many of these concerns are fair and valid. Residents deserve straight answers about who pays for grid infrastructure, what these facilities consume, and who benefits. Those are real questions. Brushing them aside would be its own kind of failure.
But there’s a louder story running underneath the debate: that AI is coming for all of our jobs, that it’s a doomsday for workers and communities, that the only safe move is to slam the door.
As a trade organization that has represented New Jersey’s technology industry for more than 30 years, here is what we believe: AI will create far more opportunity than it displaces. That isn’t naïve optimism. It’s a choice. The doomsday version only happens if we let it happen: if we cede the conversation to fear, drive builders out of the state, and leave workers and small businesses to face the transition alone.
We’re choosing the other path. Here are three things we’re doing about it.
Getting accurate, New Jersey-specific data to policymakers and the public
Most of the debate in Trenton isn’t grounded in New Jersey evidence.
We’re commissioning an independent researcher to study the real environmental and economic impact of AI infrastructure in the state: energy, water, jobs, and what it means for the communities living alongside these facilities. How much water does a data center actually use? What does it do to a local grid, and to local bills? Right now the loudest answers are often the least sourced.
Rutgers researchers have already found that data centers have not produced large, detectable increases in residential electricity bills, and the reality is more complicated than the headlines. Policymakers should be deciding based on what’s actually happening here, and the public deserves the same facts.
Helping companies use AI to create opportunity, not just brace for it
The question we hear most from founders isn’t whether to adopt AI. It’s how to do it in a way that grows their business and their team.
This matters most for small businesses, which make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, employ nearly half the private-sector workforce, and generate the large majority of net new jobs. They’re the ones best positioned to win, because AI is an equalizer: it lets a small team do what used to require a large one.
We’re living proof. At TechUnited, AI is letting us take on more, which means we expect to hire more, not less. That’s good for our team, good for the economy, and exactly the story that gets lost in the panic.
We co-produce AI Demo Nights with the AI venture studio BetterFutureLabs to give companies a front-row look at how founders are building right now, and we’re developing structured programming with Stevens Institute of Technology to help more New Jersey companies do the same.
Helping individuals see, concretely, how AI fits into the work they already do
The workforce anxiety driving much of the backlash is real, and policy alone won’t resolve it. People need to see what this actually looks like.
How I AI, a content series we produce with BetterFutureLabs, has our community and our own team show, unscripted and on camera, how they use AI day to day. The interviews are published on LinkedIn and open to anyone, and we share what we’re learning in our newsletter every week. The point is to give people an honest, practical look at where AI is opening doors, so they can make informed decisions about their own careers.
None of this is simple. The energy demands are real. The workforce questions are real. The concerns New Jersey residents are raising deserve honest engagement, not dismissal.
But the answer to a hard problem isn’t to shut the door on the technology already reshaping every sector of the economy. New Jersey can build the infrastructure thoughtfully, develop its workforce intentionally, and create a policy environment that attracts the companies and talent who will define the next decade.
That window won’t stay open forever. So, here’s our invitation: come see it for yourself. Join us at an upcoming AI Demo Night, follow How I AI, or subscribe to our newsletter. The future of AI in New Jersey isn’t something that’s going to happen to us. It’s something we get to build, together.
MJ Durkin is the COO of Tech United:NJ. TechUnited empowers the people building what comes next. The organization brings together innovators, disruptors, and entrepreneurs, providing the connections, resources, and support to move from possibility to reality. Together, we accelerate opportunity and create a better future for all.
