KINGSTON, R.I. – March 12, 2026 – Since Rhode Island created its Artificial Intelligence Task Force in 2024, the group’s primary focus has been ensuring that no business sector is left behind in the growing technology boom.

Now, the AI Task Force, which includes two University of Rhode Island faculty members, has unveiled a blueprint to help Rhode Island become a national AI leader, calling for cooperation and collaboration between government and private industry to responsibly implement the technology.

Gaurav Khanna, URI assistant vice president for research computing and a professor in the Department of Physics; and Zhu (Drew) Zhang, professor and Alfred J. Verrecchia Endowed Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics in the University’s College of Business, were among about 70 task force members who crafted the 75-page report. Released in January, the report outlines various opportunities and goals to successfully unlock AI’s full value in the state.

The report analyzed how AI is being applied to six core local sectors—education, defense industries and maritime technologies, finance, health, government and small businesses/startups/nonprofits—and provided steps to further the local economy while safeguarding it against risk. With that, URI is taking significant steps to address the state’s AI needs, particularly workforce development.

“The University of Rhode Island will play a seminal role in bringing AI to the state of Rhode Island and play a seminal role in bringing and ensuring the state is on the leading edge of this technology,” said URI Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President for Information Technology Gabriele Fariello, who has 25 years’ experience in leading large-scale, high-performance computing and technology enhancements within academia.

Reviewing local industries

Both Khanna and Zhang were part of separate fact-finding task force teams seeking to understand the potential impacts of AI on various business sectors in Rhode Island and develop strategies to safeguard against negative AI effects. Khanna’s team focused on health care, where they found several areas in which AI can improve health outcomes. 

Khanna says diagnostics can be significantly advanced with AI, noting encouraging results from AI’s usage in radiology where health issues are detected sooner and error rates are decreased. Along with AI currently supporting administrative work—such as claims processing, transcriptions and scheduling—Khanna says there’s a new field of precision medicine emerging. AI, he says, can help develop drugs that are more personalized to individual patients, reducing side effects.

In acknowledging the concerns about data privacy, patient trust, over-reliance on AI, and regulatory uncertainty that exist with the technology, Khanna says the team identified action steps to address both AI’s positive outcomes and negative effects.

“The state can accelerate AI adoption through ‘smart hospital’ pilots, AI-integrated medical education, and build upon secure data infrastructure, ethical standards, and collaboration among public, private and academic sectors,” Khanna said. “Lots of progress could be made quickly and Rhode Island can be viewed as a leader in responsible health care innovation.”

Khanna also noted the task force suggests Al-enabled “chatbots” be created for the public to find information about government programs and their benefits. He notes that AI regulation is critical to protect citizens from the potentially negative aspects of AI and that a proper AI infrastructure—from equipment to technical support—must be created for the state to beneficially leverage AI.

Zhang’s group reviewed the state’s manufacturing and defense industries and discovered that though old-fashioned AI (such as data mining, predictive analytics) already has a foundation in these industries, deployment of the new-wave of generative AI remains challenging.

Some within manufacturing and defense expressed worries about workforce displacement, where AI-based automation replaces human operation, Zhang says. The task force also discussed how current workers could up-skill and re-skill to harness AI in their operations—and adapt to new roles.

“We all recognize the importance of AI and its benefits and the concerns surrounding it. This needs to be an ongoing process,” Zhang said. “We want to emphasize the importance of collaboration between educational institutions such as URI and the business community to help with workforce training.”

Workforce push

Developing an AI workforce in Rhode Island is a key theme in the task force’s report, which calls for a push for workforce training, such as creating AI accreditation and micro-credentialing programs and certifying registered AI apprenticeships. 

It also recommends creating incentives and support for AI training, and promoting AI awareness to the public through engagement and communications.

In recent years URI has implemented various AI-related academic programming to support AI workforce development, including launching the Institute for AI and Computational Research, which Khanna leads. The institute—which provides AI infrastructure for research to other Rhode Island-based higher education institutions—represents an expanded vision for interdisciplinary research, education, and regional collaboration, and expands educational and training programs to prepare future computational science leaders.

“Through the institute’s AI lab, we offer workshops for anyone who wants to learn AI technology and be prepared for a world in which this technology is regularly used,” said Indrani Mandal, associate teaching professor in URI’s Department of Computer Science and Statistics who, along with Khanna and Fariello, gave a presentation recently to the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies. “We mentor around 35 students every semester at the lab from all educational backgrounds.”

Later this year, the Department of Computer Science and Statistics is launching a computer science track in AI. Additionally, the College of Engineering is launching an undergraduate certificate in AI.

Fariello says URI is also planning to train future workers on using generative AI (creating content based on prompts) and agentic AI (using AI to autonomously plan, take action, and achieve goals).

The task force report proposes the creation of a hub—called “AI for Rhode Island”—to provide guidance and support and to foster research and collaboration. Services provided to local businesses and nonprofits through the hub include developing high-impact projects benefiting the state; offering expert services, such as technical advisory and project management support; and creating learning resources on common available AI enablement needs, among other services.

“I see this hub as an extension of its community mission, partnering with nonprofit organizations and advisors to support small businesses,” Mandal said. “This provides an opportunity to train our students and help the community.”