TOLEDO — Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has proclaimed this week Toledo AI Week for the second consecutive year, as Great Lakes AI Week opened Tuesday at Bowling Green State University with free, hands-on artificial intelligence training and certification for Northwest Ohio workers, students and job seekers, the Enterprise Technology Association announced in a release distributed by EIN Presswire on November 10.
The timing is the point. Jobs requiring 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 ETA release. Yet while 89 percent of workers say they already use AI on the job, only about one in three have received AI training from their employer, according to a 2026 Study.com survey cited in the release.
"AI skills pay, and most workers are being asked to use AI without ever being trained on it," Zack Huhn, the Enterprise Technology Association’s chief superintelligence officer, said in the ETA release. "Toledo AI Week puts free, practical training in front of anyone who wants it, whether you’re starting your career, changing careers or leading a team."
Great Lakes AI Week 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, according to the release. The week brings together more than 120 speakers, university presidents, employers and community leaders through November 12, and attendees earn credit toward AI Ready Ohio certificates, with a goal of training and certifying more than 1,000 Ohioans this week, the release said.
The certificates stack as skills grow, and all three are free for attendees, according to the release: AI Explorer, at two credit hours, covers foundational AI literacy, prompting and responsible use; AI Empowered Professional, at four credit hours, covers applying AI in everyday work from operations and marketing to engineering, finance and human resources; and AI Empowered Leader, at eight credit hours, covers strategy and governance for people leading AI adoption. After the event, Ohioans can keep building skills with free online courses at aireadyohio.org, the release said.
Tuesday’s program is the Great Lakes AI Leadership Summit at BGSU’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union in Bowling Green, aimed at leaders and managers guiding teams through AI, according to the release. It opens with a welcome from BGSU President Rodney Rogers and remarks from Provost Ravi Krovi, followed by JobsOhio’s Elise Meyers and sessions on AI governance, higher education, the AI economy and manufacturing, the release said.
Wednesday, November 11, is AI Week Community Day at One SeaGate in downtown Toledo, from noon to 5 p.m., with virtual sessions from 9 a.m. to noon, according to the release. The day is built for residents, job seekers, students and small business owners, with hands-on AI Ready Ohio workshops, office hours, a live AI coding session with Toledo Codes and an ask-the-builders session, the release said.
Thursday, November 12, closes the week with the AI for Business Summit at the University of Toledo’s Lancelot Thompson Student Union, according to the release. It opens with a Women in AI and Business breakfast, followed by remarks from UT President James Holloway and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and sessions on AI in defense, engineering, health care and manufacturing, the release said.
Northwest Ohio is where AI Ready Ohio began, according to the release: the statewide training and certification initiative, powered by JobsOhio and ETA, launched as a pilot at Great Lakes AI Week 2025 and has since expanded to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and online, with thousands of Ohioans earning AI credentials. This year’s week brings that work back to Toledo and Bowling Green.
The week also puts Northwest Ohio’s two universities at the center of the region’s workforce conversation at a busy moment on both campuses — BGSU is in the middle of its football season’s biggest week, as Bowling Green hosts Kent State tonight for the Anniversary Award, and Toledo’s institutions are marking the city’s own history this week, as Toledo honors trailblazer Louis Escobar with a historical marker.
Great Lakes AI Week 2026 is supported by JobsOhio, Huntington, The Andersons, BGSU, the University of Toledo, Nexigen, Big Kitty Labs, Actual Reality Technologies, EmpoweredAI, FBT Gibbons and SSOE, along with community partners around the state, according to the release.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the three days of programming, the venues and the free certificate tracks are set, registration is open at greatlakesaiweek.com, free community passes and student tickets are available, and the public can save 50 percent on tickets with the code AIReady, according to the ETA release. What we’re still waiting on: final attendance and how many of the week’s 1,000-plus target certifications are earned — figures the organizers are expected to report after Thursday’s close.
What happens next is Wednesday’s Community Day at One SeaGate in downtown Toledo — the session aimed squarely at residents and job seekers rather than executives — followed by Thursday’s business summit at the University of Toledo. Anyone who misses the week can start the same certificates free online at aireadyohio.org.
Photo: Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA