Turning a Small City into an AI Preparation Hub

Melinda Barrett became mayor of Haverhill, Massachusetts, in January 2024, the first woman to hold the office in the city's 300-year history. A third-generation Haverhill resident, she spent 10 years on the City Council before running for mayor, including a term as the first woman to serve as council president. Before entering politics, she ran her family business, a specialty foods store that had operated downtown for more than a century.

Barrett has used her time in office to press an economic development agenda built around emerging technology, positioning Haverhill as a smaller city that can compete for investment in artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing without the costs tied to Boston. That approach took shape after the state passed the Mass Leads Act, a package that included $100 million for artificial intelligence research and $500 million for life sciences. Barrett met with the City Council to discuss how Haverhill could position itself to draw on the funding.

That groundwork carried into 2026, when the state launched a free online AI training program through a partnership between the Massachusetts AI Hub and Google, offering certificates in artificial intelligence career tracks to any resident through the end of 2027. City Council Vice President John Michitson described the program as a state-funded path into higher-paying technical roles, arguing it could help Haverhill build a certified AI workforce attractive to employers looking outside the higher-cost Boston corridor.

In June, the city partnered with the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce and local workforce, education, and business leaders to host the Haverhill AI Summit. The event drew workers, students, educators, and business owners for sessions on workforce readiness, education integration, responsible AI use, and small business adoption of the technology.

Scott Latham of the University of Massachusetts Lowell delivered the keynote on how AI is reshaping industries and organizations, drawing on two decades studying disruption in the workplace. Dan Sarofian-Butin of Merrimack College led a session connecting education and workforce needs, and Seth Cordes of Uncommon Catalyst addressed ethics, trust, and cybersecurity.

Organizers built the summit around the idea that preparation matters more than fear. Michitson framed the stakes as competitive rather than existential, arguing that the central risk facing workers is being outpaced by peers who learn to use the technology.

The event also served as a launch point for clbhub.org, a workforce platform designed to connect residents, students, employers, and training providers into a single system for career pathways. Organizers described the summit as the start of ongoing collaboration, with plans for monthly cohorts and working groups covering AI learning, workforce transition, and business adoption going forward.

Barrett was credited alongside city staff, the Economic Development Task Force, and regional education and workforce partners for helping move the initiative from concept to event. The effort reflects a broader pattern in her administration of pairing state-level investment with local coordination, using Haverhill's manufacturing base and workforce partners to claim a place in a funding landscape usually associated with larger cities.

Taken together, the AI Hub training rollout and the summit show a city government treating artificial intelligence readiness as economic policy. For a city of roughly 68,000 people, the strategy offers a template for how smaller municipalities can use state partnerships and local coalitions to compete for the same technology investment that larger cities pursue.

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