Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has proclaimed this week “Toledo AI Week” for the second consecutive year as Great Lakes AI Week brings free, hands-on artificial intelligence training and certification to Northwest Ohio workers, students and job seekers, according to an EIN Presswire release from the event’s organizers.
The week opened Tuesday, Nov. 10, with the Great Lakes AI Leadership Summit at Bowling Green State University’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Wednesday’s AI Week Community Day runs at One SeaGate in downtown Toledo, with virtual sessions from 9 a.m. to noon and in-person programming from noon to 5 p.m. aimed at residents, job seekers, students and small business owners, including hands-on AI Ready Ohio workshops and office hours.
The series closes Thursday, Nov. 12, with the AI for Business Summit at the University of Toledo’s Lancelot Thompson Student Union. Across the three days, organizers say more than 120 speakers, university presidents, employers and community leaders are taking part.
The pitch behind the week is economic. Jobs that require AI skills now advertise an average 62 percent wage premium and are growing almost eight times faster than the overall job market, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, cited in the organizers’ release. Great Lakes AI Week was built, organizers say, to close the gap between that demand and the local workforce.
The event is produced by the Enterprise Technology Association, with JobsOhio as headline partner and Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo as host partners. Organizers note that Northwest Ohio is where AI Ready Ohio began, and the free certification offered this week is designed to give Ohioans a credential they can carry into job applications.
Supporters listed by the organizers include Huntington, The Andersons, Nexigen, Big Kitty Labs, Actual Reality Technologies, EmpoweredAI, FBT Gibbons and SSOE, along with community partners and sponsors from around the state.
Registration remains open at greatlakesaiweek.com. For Northwest Ohio residents weighing a career move, organizers say the Community Day sessions are the on-ramp: no prior technical background is required for the introductory AI Ready Ohio workshops.
Photo: Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA