From large companies expanding their artificial intelligence centers to Waymo cars cruising city streets, Atlanta is quickly becoming an artificial intelligence powerhouse.
Jonathan Goldberg, an employee at Google, said he has noticed that multinational organizations are beginning to significantly expand their brands in the Atlanta metro area. Several of these large companies, such as Microsoft and GreyOrange, have started relocating AI centers and headquarters worth billions of dollars to the city due to its development over the past two years.
“Atlanta is ideally suited to become an AI hub, and this is true for several reasons,” Goldberg said. “One is that a lot of large organizations are putting large facilities here that primarily serve AI from a capacity standpoint. Google (and) Microsoft have created large buildings, large facilities and have a lot of people working there. Therefore, a lot of headquarters are moving to Atlanta.”
As AI grows in Atlanta, job opportunities grow with it. Several jobs have been taken over by AI, such as computer programming, call centers, and content generation, but when new technological advancements multiply, related jobs also open new employment doors. These positions include machine learning engineer, AI research scientist, data scientist, and AI product managers.
“I know a lot of roles are going to be eliminated,” Goldberg said. “And a lot of those roles are going to be people who were once the most sought-after members of teams, like computer programmers. I think it’s worrying from that kind of perspective. I will say that for any technological transformation that’s happened in history…? It’s always taken certain jobs, made them redundant, and opened the door for those minds to be used to solve bigger problems and challenges.”
With the rapid innovation of AI, some industries are expected to be completely transformed in the near future. Healthcare professional Amy Lambert said she sees a bright future in using AI for medicine and expects its use to increase rapidly.
“Health care will definitely be affected by improving AI,” Lambert said. “With AI, you have a better ability to read an image or provide a recommendation based on a test result. You can do things a million times a minute with AI, whereas it would take a million doctors to do the same thing without it. This kind of thing is going to revolutionize healthcare.”
Other jobs at financial companies are also affected. Investment firms, banks and data analytics companies are increasingly relying on AI in their daily operations. The routine tasks of these companies are now entirely taken care of by AI. However, new employment opportunities in these fields are being created to combat job losses.
“Financial services is also another area where AI is incredibly valuable because it helps create predictive models,” Goldberg said. “You’re able to give AI programs years and years of data, and they can create a product very quickly. So I think financial services is also the most important and most suitable for innovation.”
AI not only affects the current workforce, but it is also starting to affect future generations. Senior Hayden Horn explained how, as she enters college, she begins to think more deeply about what classes to take in college will be most beneficial in the future.
“As I thought about college in fall 2026, I made sure to keep an open mind to classes specifically in AI, because I’m sure it will be a big part of our world in the future, and it’s nice to have a head start,” Horn said. “I think every industry, no matter what I specialize in, will be affected in some way, which is really exciting but scary to think about because it requires more skills.”
Like other major cities in the United States, Atlanta is home to many AI-driven electric vehicles called Waymos. As of this year, more than 100 of these cars parked in Atlanta are on the streets and can even pick up people who were planning to benefit from an Uber ride-sharing service. Sophomore Elene Kahkiani talks about how her experience in a Waymo vehicle was both exciting and unsettling.
“I’ve been in a Waymo car while ubering many times, but when I took my first ride, it was really nerve-wracking,” Kahkiani said. “After a while, I got used to it because once I saw how carefully and well he drove, I felt even safer than if it was a real person driving. It’s honestly crazy how fast technology is evolving, especially with AI, and we’re lucky to see this incredible change in society.”
The spread of misinformation, harmful uses and loss of control over systems are all factors considered by AI users and system builders. Although there are rules and regulations in place to prevent most of these problems, it is never guaranteed.
In the coming years, Atlanta is expected to integrate AI into the daily lives of its residents. Future plans include integrating AI into government workplaces by arranging investments in AI development and research. Government officials are determined to keep Atlanta ahead in technological advancements, thereby promoting its economic growth.
“What worries me the most is how AI can be perceived as a human, because it’s not a human, it’s really code,” said sophomore Adaline Bryant. “It’s a really scary thing to think about because it creates a barrier of not knowing what to trust and misinformation. But in general, I think this recent expansion of AI in the city of Atlanta is so incredible and will change the city in such a positive way in the near future.”