UW-Milwaukee researcher: AI is something people can learn and adapt to – WPR

Artificial intelligence is transforming the global economy, redefining industries and changing workforce dynamics. 

Over the last year, Rina Ghose, a data science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has attempted to look across Wisconsin to find out how this disruption is affecting the state’s workforce. 

She found jobs in management, business, science and arts are most likely to be affected by AI followed by sales and office jobs. While jobs in natural resources, construction and maintenance are least likely to be affected. 

“We’re looking at trends from 2018 to 2025,” Ghose said. “I hesitate to say this will replace us, because people can adopt and learn, so hopefully this will not lead to too much job displacement.” 

Ghose received a one-year grant from Microsoft in May 2025 for this work. On Tuesday, she presented her findings to more than 700 people during a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education session. 

Ghose found Milwaukee leads with the most AI patents with 870, followed by Brookfield, 565; Madison, 447; Wauwatosa, 362 and Oshkosh, 163. 

Overall, 10 Wisconsin cities filed 2,890 AI patents from 2022 to 2024.

The industries leading AI include GE Precision Healthcare with 536 patents, Milwaukee Electric Tool with 532; Johnson Controls with 486; and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with 253. 

Ghose’s grant came one year after Microsoft invested $3.3 billion in several Wisconsin projects including establishing the country’s first manufacturing-focused AI Co-Innovation Lab at UW-Milwaukees’s Connected Systems Institute.

During the event on Tuesday, audience members were most interested in how AI could replace their jobs, and what they could do to preserve their livelihoods.

Ghose reassured them that rapidly changing technology is something that people can adapt to and learn. 

“Like any technology there’s a shift time and there is a retraining time, but we can do it,” Ghose said. “I myself had to learn a lot of these, and I’m no spring chicken either. So, you know, it’s a process of constant learning.”

Natasha Jankowski, executive director of UW-Milwaukee’s Center for Advancing Student Learning, said AI is a topic that’s on everyone’s mind. 

“People want to know what’s going on, what’s happening in Wisconsin and how to stay ahead of a technology that’s constantly changing,” Jankowski said.  

Michelle Hobbins, the associate vice president for information technology at Carthage College said she was hoping to better understand how AI will shape the future of the workforce and how students can be prepared for their future. 

“We’re dabbling in some things, but really trying to set strategy for the future,” Hobbins said. “I mean, AI makes information access easier, but it also requires us to be more discerning in terms of the information that we get.”