Preparing Adult Learners for the Future of Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

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The Deep South is absorbing one of the largest concentrations of AI infrastructure investment in the United States, yet the region’s low educational attainment, adult degree-completion gap, and concentrated occupational exposure of its Black workforce leave it poorly positioned to capture the resulting economic opportunity. This paper analyzes an existing Bachelor of Science in Professional Interdisciplinary Studies (PrIS), a degree-completion program for adult learners at a public historically Black university (HBCU) in Mississippi, and proposes an action plan for redesigning it into a workforce-connected, AI-infused credential. Using environmental scanning and document analysis, it assembles four evidence streams: regional industry development, including $75 billion in announced AI capital investment; regional talent supply, where 27.0% bachelor’s attainment and 43.1 million adults with some college and no credential define the market; the HBCU landscape, where AI investment flows almost exclusively to STEM units while interdisciplinary programs serving adults remain unfunded; and employer demand, where AI-skill postings carry a 28% wage premium and 51% sit outside IT. From this scan, the paper derives a provisional competency profile, reframes adult learners’ workplace experience as an analytical asset for evaluating AI outputs, and proposes a five-phase action plan organized around the Responsible AI Integration Framework and the HBCU-IDS Integrative Resilience Framework, with a 36-month implementation timeline, an evaluation strand extending through month 48, resource requirements, and a risk register.