{"id":443111,"date":"2026-02-01T16:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/443111\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:33:08","slug":"comeback-town-birmingham-the-disruption-is-coming-whether-were-ready-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/443111\/","title":{"rendered":"Comeback Town: Birmingham, the disruption is coming whether we\u2019re ready or not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comeback Town is an opinion column exploring all things Birmingham. It is coordinated by David Sher<\/a>. Today\u2019s guest columnist is Austin Senseman.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to ComebackTown newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

By Austin Senseman<\/p>\n

AI is going to be disruptive.<\/p>\n

Be prepared for the disorder and churn.<\/p>\n

No one really knows what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

But out of chaos comes opportunity.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this is such an important moment for Birmingham.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re entering a period where the deck gets reshuffled.<\/p>\n

And for Birmingham? That might be exactly what we need.<\/p>\n

Birmingham\u2019s Big Opportunity<\/p>\n

Birmingham has a choice: we can wait for the model, or we can become the model.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Will Blackburn and I created a ground-breaking non-profit\u2013Birmingham AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Birmingham has been making steady, incremental progress, and it feels good.<\/p>\n

But incremental progress in an AI-driven exponential world will feel like falling behind.<\/p>\n

While we take careful, measured steps, the ground beneath will start moving faster than we\u2019re walking.<\/p>\n

But maybe for a city that\u2019s been stuck in the middle of the pack, this uncertainty is the opening we\u2019ve been waiting for, if we\u2019re ready to lead.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the story that I want you to hear.<\/p>\n

A New World By 2036<\/p>\n

2025 was the year AI went mainstream\u2014for the first time, more than half of Americans used AI tools at work.<\/p>\n

ChatGPT broke into the top five websites.<\/p>\n

And the perception shifted from \u201cAI is a toy\u201d to CEOs saying they\u2019ll hire fewer junior roles because AI can do the work.<\/p>\n

From my point of view 2025 was the warm-up year for AI. A decade of uncomfortable, accelerating change starts this year. Are you ready?<\/p>\n

I will help to put this moment in historical perspective.<\/p>\n

Sixty percent of 2020\u2019s roles didn\u2019t exist in 1960. Many old roles went away, many new roles emerged. AI will accelerate that trend over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

Most of today\u2019s roles might not exist in 2036.<\/p>\n

In 1957, 500 companies joined the S&P500. Fast forward ninety percent of the original S&P 500 companies have disappeared. AI will accelerate that trend over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

Most of today\u2019s S&P 500 companies might not exist in 2036.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re entering a decade where stable roles will get reimagined and stable companies will either adapt or die.<\/p>\n

The hard truth is that nobody knows exactly what\u2019s coming. The uncertainty is real, and it\u2019s high.<\/p>\n

Join Us On Our AI Journey<\/p>\n

At Birmingham AI we\u2019re on a mission to help Birmingham make sense of this overwhelming wave. I want to invite you to join us on this journey.<\/p>\n

Birmingham isn\u2019t going to build the next ChatGPT. That\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n

For cities like Birmingham, the race for the next decade is focused on adoption \u2013 which cities move fastest to put these tools to work across their economies.<\/p>\n

San Francisco will build the tools. The open question is whether Birmingham will be among the first to use them well.<\/p>\n

We believe this is a race where we have a right to compete, and to win.<\/p>\n

The competition starts with individuals using AI tools. You don\u2019t need a computer science degree. You need to create a ChatGPT account and ask, \u201cHow can I use AI to be more successful? How do I get started?\u201d<\/p>\n

The shift from overwhelmed to engaged happens fast. I\u2019ve watched 1000\u2019s of people from a wide range of backgrounds walk in curious, and within a few sessions they\u2019re teaching others what they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

We built Birmingham AI to support your personal journey.<\/p>\n

No Need To Be An AI expert<\/p>\n

The competition continues with our business, government, and civic leaders recognizing the pace and intensity of what\u2019s coming. You don\u2019t need to be an AI expert.<\/p>\n

You need to invest a few hours every week reading and discussing emerging AI topics. Find voices that you trust, engage with the significant topics in your field, and make up your own mind.<\/p>\n

We built Birmingham AI to support your leadership journey.<\/p>\n

The competition concludes with the broader Birmingham community reimagining together what our city looks like in 10 years, after the dust settles.<\/p>\n

Great things are going to happen over the next decade, and tough things are going to happen too. Birmingham AI offers a space where our community can convene and figure this out together.<\/p>\n

In June 2023, we started Birmingham AI with a simple idea: create a space where anyone curious about AI could show up for honest conversation. No agenda. No sales pitch. No expertise required.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Growing Exponentially<\/p>\n

Fifty people came to that first meeting. Then 100. Then 200. Now 800 show up every month. Over 2,000 people walked through our door in 2025 \u2013 zero marketing budget, just word of mouth.<\/p>\n

What started out as a casual lunch meetup at Innovation Depot is transforming into a city-wide movement to support Birmingham\u2019s transition into the AI era. We expect 10,000 people at our events in 2026.<\/p>\n

The growth tells you everything. Birmingham is hungry for this knowledge. We\u2019re not waiting for someone else to lead.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, we formalized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission: \u201cto accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in Birmingham, for all.\u201d Forward-thinking business leaders immediately stepped up.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve raised money from Birmingham leaders including Tony and Britney Summerville, Ruffner Page, Mike Goodrich, Shegun Otulana, Jared Weinstein, Daniel Coleman, and others who believe this is Birmingham\u2019s moment.<\/p>\n

This is Birmingham, Alabama. Not a coastal tech hub. A diverse city full of people who figure things out. That\u2019s what we do here.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just for techies. It\u2019s for all of us.<\/p>\n

The only question is whether AI happens *to* Birmingham or *for* Birmingham.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already 2026, are you ready?<\/p>\n

Join us at Birmingham AI free events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Austin Senseman, CFA is co-founder of Birmingham AI<\/a>, a 501(c)(3) focused on accelerating the adoption of AI in Birmingham, for all. Austin also runs Caravan<\/a>, a private training company helping business leaders upskill their teams on AI.<\/p>\n

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown<\/a>. He\u2019s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).<\/p>\n

Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comeback Town is an opinion column exploring all things Birmingham. It is coordinated by David Sher. Today\u2019s guest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-443111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}