New AI Institute Report Explores AI’s Impact on Jobs in Southwest Colorado

By Mario Martinez, Founder of the AI Institute at Fort Lewis College, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Artificial intelligence is already changing how people work, how businesses operate, and how communities prepare for the future. For Southwest Colorado, the question is not whether AI will affect our workforce, but how we can respond with clarity, responsibility, and partnership.

That is the focus of AI & Jobs: Impact, Evidence, and Pathways Forward, a new executive research paper from the AI Institute at Fort Lewis College. Prepared as a companion piece for our May 13 community event, AI & Jobs: Understanding AI’s Impact on the Workforce, the report examines national employment trends and what they mean for La Plata County, the Four Corners, and the broader region.  

The report finds that AI’s impact on work is real, but uneven. Entry-level and junior roles are seeing some of the earliest pressure, especially roles built around routine writing, research, data entry, scheduling, and basic analysis. At the same time, sectors central to our regional economy, including healthcare, education, tourism, small business, tribal enterprises, and skilled trades, continue to depend on human judgment, relationships, and place-based knowledge.

For Southwest Colorado, the greatest risk may not be sudden job loss. It may be falling behind as AI skills, productivity gains, and new opportunities concentrate elsewhere. That is why rural AI readiness matters.

The AI Institute at Fort Lewis College was created to help our region shape this transition proactively. Our goal is to advance AI education, training, networking, and public-good innovation so that workers, employers, students, and community leaders can participate in the future of work rather than be left reacting to it.

On May 13, we invite the community to join us for a conversation about what AI means for jobs in our region. The evening will include expert commentary, a panel of regional business leaders, audience Q&A, and networking.

We hope this report helps ground the discussion in evidence, local context, and a shared commitment to preparing Southwest Colorado for an AI-driven future.

➡️ Read the full report.

NOTE ON AI USE: This report was produced through a human-AI collaboration. The research process included scanning news outlets, vendor and institutional announcements, and federal and state policy releases to identify relevant stories and developments. The report was generated with assistance from Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, and then reviewed against the primary sources cited in the References section for fact-checking.

The final report, including the community-specific implications and all editorial judgments, was completed by the human authors. Every line of the document was reviewed, edited, or rewritten by a human. Report formatting and design work were also completed with assistance from Claude Code.