Growing the Massachusetts AI Ecosystem in 2025 to Lead Globally

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Event Recap

On January 28th, 2025 I had the opportunity to attend the “Growing the Massachusetts AI Ecosystem” forum organized by DAIMLAS AI Ecosystem builders that combined two of my favorite things — Artificial Intelligence and my home state of Massachusetts. The event brought together thought leaders, academics, investors and innovators to discuss how the state can leverage its unique strengths to build a world-class AI hub. It showcased the progress, challenges, and opportunities of growing a robust AI ecosystem in Massachusetts. This comprehensive recap provides a deep dive into the event’s key themes and takeaways, offering a detailed exploration of the initiatives and strategies shaping the future of AI in the Commonwealth.

The room was packed, and I ended up with a seat in the back left. As a result, most of my photos include a row of people’s heads in the foreground — my apologies for the imperfect angles! Now let’s get down to it — how is Massachusetts poised to become a global leader in AI?

The Role of DAIMLAS in Building AI Ecosystems

Kicking the evening off was our host DAIMLAS, an organization dedicated to creating fully functional AI ecosystems, is at the forefront of efforts to position Boston and Massachusetts as global AI leaders. Unlike many other regions, Massachusetts is moving beyond mere announcements and taking tangible action to cultivate its AI ecosystem. DAIMLAS’ approach integrates diverse stakeholders, including K-12 schools, regulators, business leaders, research labs, and AI Centers of Excellence. By fostering collaboration among these groups, DAIMLAS aims to create a connected and sustainable AI ecosystem that not only drives innovation but also ensures that the benefits of AI are accessible to all.

DAIMLAS Ecosystem Map

Central to DAIMLAS’ vision is their comprehensive AI ecosystem model, which addresses the entire spectrum of AI stakeholders. This includes everything from nurturing young talent in schools to engaging with regulators and supporting entrepreneurs. For Massachusetts, DAIMLAS outlined seven key recommendations to strengthen its AI leadership.

Key Recommendations for Massachusetts:

  1. Create more jobs with “AI” in the role.
  2. Capitalize on Massachusetts’ reputation as a global hub for AI learning.
  3. Strengthen collaborations between industry and academia to develop AI talent.
  4. Provide pathways for career switchers to transition into AI roles.
  5. Expand AI training programs for government employees.
  6. Promote “Made in MA AI” to the world.
  7. Assist companies in building their AI Centers of Excellence.

Moreover, DAIMLAS emphasized the importance of expanding pathways into AI careers for professionals from other fields, increasing AI training for government employees, and promoting Massachusetts’ AI innovations on a global stage. By addressing these areas, DAIMLAS envisions Massachusetts as a leader not just in AI development but also in building AI-centric communities and institutions.

AI Policy, Taskforce and Government Initiatives

Speaker: Jason Snyder, Secretary of the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security and Commonwealth CIO

Jason Snyder, who has one of the longest job titles I have ever seen (I hope the commonwealth isn’t paying him by the character) has a very strong background in both the public and private sectors — including his previous role as CTO at Harvard University— Snyder emphasized how AI can enhance public services by bridging the gap between residents in need of government services and the government agencies that serve them.

A key highlight of Snyder’s discussion was Massachusetts’ proactive approach to AI governance. A year prior, he had announced the formation of an AI task force comprising experts from various industries, public sector leaders, and academic institutions. This task force was charged with evaluating how AI could stimulate the state’s economy, support workforce development, and foster innovation through incubators. The goal was not just to regulate AI but to position Massachusetts as a leader in an AI-driven economy.

Snyder dispelled the common fear that AI will eliminate jobs, instead arguing that those who understand AI will have a competitive edge over those who don’t. To democratize access to AI tools, his team launched an AI Sandbox in partnership with Northeastern University, where students tackled real-world use cases. One notable project saw two students develop an AI system that dramatically streamlined the early stages of bridge construction, saving government employees months of work. The AI Sandbox initiative proved successful, with eight out of twelve participating students securing state government roles and two others went on to work for the city of Boston.

Looking forward, Snyder announced that Massachusetts would soon open an AI Compute Center — one of the first of its kind. This facility, expected to launch in June, will provide infrastructure for AI experimentation, training, and development, ensuring that the state remains at the forefront of technological advancement. Additionally, the establishment of an AI Center of Excellence and an AI Council will further solidify Massachusetts’ commitment to leading in AI policy, research, and application.

Mr. Snyder certainly painted an incredible picture for the future of AI in the Commonwealth, and I am wholeheartedly rooting for him and his team to accomplish these lofty goals for the betterment of the state and the future of AI in Massachusetts.

AI Literacy: Empowering the Next Generation

Speaker: Cynthia Breazeal, Professor, Media Lab; Director of Personal Robots; Director, MIT RAISE; Dean for Digital Learning

One of the most impactful discussions at the event centered around the importance of AI literacy, particularly among younger generations. Cynthia Breazeal, a Professor at MIT and Director of the MIT RAISE initiative, who amazingly has even longer job title than Mr. Snyder (by a whopping 7 characters) underscored the transformative role of AI in personal, civic, and professional life. She highlighted how early education in AI is crucial for equipping future generations to navigate and shape the AI-driven world responsibly.

Through the MIT RAISE initiative, Breazeal and her team are redefining how AI literacy is approached in K-12 education. The “Day of AI” curriculum, a cornerstone of this initiative, offers a groundbreaking approach to teaching AI. It provides short-format modules that are both accessible and engaging for students of all ages and backgrounds. These modules cover a wide range of topics, from ethics in AI to hands-on application skills, ensuring that students not only understand AI technology but also learn to use it responsibly. AI literacy starts with teachers demystify AI and empowering students to become informed users and creators. This free resource can be used by any teacher, teaching any subject, at any level.

Day of AI Overview— dayofai.org

  • All K-12 students & their teachers (any subject or tech experience) for in-classroom learning.
  • Multi-disciplinary, student-relatable, hands-on curriculum with opportunities for human skills, creative design, and critical thinking.
  • Bringing AI Literacy to classrooms by short-format curriculum relevant to school subjects.
  • Aligned with UNESCO Student AI Competency Framework.
  • Equitable use: “Plugged” and “unplugged” activities for varying levels of tech readiness.
  • Free + open curricula & professional development.
  • Competency aspects: Human-centered mindset, Ethics of AI, AI techniques and applications
Student Agency & Empowerment

Since its inception in 2022, the Day of AI program has expanded to over 150 countries, impacting millions of students and thousands of teachers. They have empowered students with AI to create mobile apps like the TreeSaver app. Breazeal’s vision is clear: by shaping AI education in schools, we can shape an entire generation who will be empowered with their own agency to leverage AI. This approach is not just about teaching students how AI works but about fostering a generation of innovators who can harness AI for the greater good. The program’s hands-on, multidisciplinary approach ensures that students develop critical thinking skills, creativity, and an ethical mindset — qualities that will be indispensable in the AI era.

I wholeheartedly commend Cynthia Breazeal and the MIT RAISE team for their outstanding efforts in AI literacy. Inspired by their work, I have already encouraged my children’s school to incorporate the Day of AI curriculum as a powerful and engaging educational resource.

Leveraging AI to Become a 10x Entrepreneur

Speaker: Jeff Bussgang, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School; Co-Founder and General Partner, Flybridge

Jeff Bussgang, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, who clearly felt a little inadequate due to his job title having less than 90 characters 😂, introduced the concept of the “10x Entrepreneur” drawing parallels to the well-known “10x Developer.” A 10x Entrepreneur, according to Bussgang, is someone who leverages AI to accelerate their journey to product-market fit and amplify their capabilities. This concept highlights how AI can be a game-changer for founders, enabling them to innovate faster and more effectively than ever before.

Jeff Bussgang explains how AI changes the game for founders

Bussgang emphasized that AI tools have the potential to revolutionize ideation and product development. By using AI to analyze market trends, generate ideas, and identify opportunities, entrepreneurs can significantly streamline the early stages of their ventures. For example, tools like SparkRocket allow founders to rapidly create business prototypes, landing pages, and other startup essentials in mere seconds. These capabilities not only save time but also enable entrepreneurs to iterate and experiment at unprecedented speeds. Experimentation is the name of the game for entrepreneurs which prompted him to write The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product Market Fit in the age of AI”. AI can assist founders to accelerated ideation by generating new ideas, analyze market trends, and identify opportunities and enhance product development from prototyping to testing, AI streamlines the entire product lifecycle making experimentation both easier and faster.

Real-world examples of this approach include companies like ToplinePro and Blitzy. ToplinePro uses AI to build websites for service professionals by ingesting social media feeds and customer reviews, while Blitzy automates the journey from concept to application development. These examples illustrate how AI can empower entrepreneurs to move from idea to execution more efficiently, ultimately driving greater innovation and value creation.

Jeff also showed off an AI clone of himself on Delphi where anyone can ask his AI clone questions. Founders can even have it review your startup for you. Imagine a world where all the top minds in any industry can create a train and AI clone of themselves to provide guidance and advice at massive scale? Its pretty wild — I even had Jeff’s AI clone review this blog: “This event recap captures a lot of the energy and ambition surrounding Massachusetts’ AI ecosystem, and I’m thrilled to see how the state is positioning itself as a global leader in AI innovation.” Jeff’s AI Clone even gave me a few tips on each section, some of which I incorporated.

Mr. Bussgang’s insights also underscored the broader implications of AI adoption for business leaders. He argued that the AI era represents a moment of profound transformation, akin to previous technological revolutions like Web 1.0 and mobile computing. For entrepreneurs and executives, this is an opportunity to rethink strategies, embrace experimentation, and leverage AI to build more agile and innovative organizations.

AI for Commonwealth Competitiveness

Thoughts on a pragmatic approaches form EAI: The Institute for Experiential AI, Northeastern University

Speaker: Usama Fayyad Ph.D. Inaugural Director, EAI Northeastern University

Usama Fayyad, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University, whose job title my now seem woefully short to my readers but fear not because the title of his presentation clocked in a at an off-the-charts 140 characters, offered a compelling perspective on the role of human-centric approaches in AI development. He introduced the concept of “Experiential AI” which emphasizes the importance of human-in-the-loop systems. According to Fayyad, effective AI requires human intervention to guide, correct, and contextualize its outputs. This approach ensures that AI systems are not only accurate but also aligned with human values and goals.

What is Experiential AI?

  • Human-centric approaches to solve real problems in real contexts with a human in the loop: Effective Human ↔ AI Cooperation
  • Human intervention is a must and its a great opportunity for knowledge capture & ML
  • Thesis: Taking an applied approach is the best way to solve problems in science and practice. Leverage data in a way that amplifies the values and benefits of machine learning. Create mechanisms for machines and humans to learn together.
  • Result: Creating actions, decisions, and results that neither machines nor humans can achieve alone.

Fayyad highlighted the need for smarter, more focused AI models. Unlike large, general-purpose models like ChatGPT, smaller models with a narrower focus often deliver better results at lower costs. He also stressed the importance of high-quality, granular data in enabling effective machine learning. Most organizations struggle with data management, particularly when it comes to unstructured data, which makes up 90% of most enterprises’ data. To address this challenge, Fayyad advocated for systems that capture and curate data effectively, integrating human expertise to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Education and workforce development were also central to Fayyad’s vision. He argued that traditional education systems must evolve to prepare students for the demands of applied AI. Experiential education, which emphasizes learning through application, is critical for building the skills needed in the AI workforce. By adopting this approach, Massachusetts can lead the way in creating a new reserve of AI talent, ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the AI era. He posed several questions like What is your AI Talent Strategy? and What do we need to attract and retain the right talent? Fayyad shared these AI training levels as model for understanding how to advance training and AI education.

Levels of Training:
a. AI Literacy & Awareness
b. AI Business Usage
c. AI Technical Usage
d. AI Technical In-House Expertise
e. AI for Executives and Leaders
f. AI Policies, Regulations, and Law

It will be critical for the Commonwealth, business leaders, educators and many others to ask these questions and start providing training at every level.

Growing the AI Ecosystem: An Investor’s Perspective

Speaker: Ali Mahmoud, Principal at Glasswing Ventures

Ali Mahmoud, Principal at Glasswing Ventures, who clearly didn’t even come to compete for longest job title — I mean “Principal” that's all you can bring? If your not even going to try why show up? 😭 Did in fact provide valuable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities of building AI companies. Glasswing as been investing in a portfolio of AI companies for the last several years and created a proprietary AI Value Creation Framework offers a roadmap for success, focusing on three core pillars: Data, Architecture, and Impact.

Glasswing’s AI Value Creation Framework

Data is the foundation of any successful AI company. Mahmoud emphasized the importance of data quality, availability, and performance thresholds. Without reliable data, even the most sophisticated AI systems will fail to deliver meaningful results. Architecture is another critical component, encompassing system design, regulatory considerations, and model performance. Finally, impact measures how well AI systems integrate into workflows, generate revenue, and drive adoption.

Massachusetts’ unique strengths — including its research density (one of the highest in the world), talent pool, and supportive government policies — make it an ideal environment for AI innovation. However, Mahmoud stressed the need for a full-court press to strengthening Massachusetts’ competitive edge. This includes promoting collaboration between industry and academia, accelerating the investment cycle (Liquidity → Angels → Startups), and foster public-private collaboration through initiatives, events and innovation spaces.

As a web3 and AI Angel myself I found this session particularly interesting as it gave me insight as to how a VC looks at AI. I will also be putting their framework to into use as I evaluate my own AI investments.

JigsawML: AI Agents-Powered Cloud Operations Platform

Speaker: Pracheer Gupta, Co-founder & CEO @JigsawML

To close out the event was a talk from an local AI startup from Pracheer Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of JigsawML [insert your own joke about job title here — I have officially run out]. JigsawML is an AI-powered cloud operations platform designed to revolutionize enterprise cloud management by providing deep contextual insights into how an organization is using its cloud infrastructure. Gupta emphasized that traditional cloud management tools often rely on static documentation, which can quickly become outdated. In contrast, JigsawML dynamically builds a knowledge graph of an enterprise’s cloud architecture, allowing for real-time insights and intelligent decision-making.

JigsawML Unique Insight

A key capability of JigsawML is its ability to automatically generate architecture diagrams by analyzing an organization’s code base. This feature eliminates the need for large teams to manually create and update cloud infrastructure diagrams, which can often be inconsistent across different departments. Furthermore, JigsawML’s system includes robust drill-down capabilities, enabling users to query the AI for details on data flows, security vulnerabilities, billing processes, and system health.

Currently optimized for AWS, JigsawML’s approach provides a crucial advantage for enterprises that need to maintain security and operational efficiency in increasingly complex cloud environments. By offering automated insights and real-time guidance, JigsawML has positioned itself as a vital tool for businesses aiming to optimize cloud costs, enhance security, and streamline DevOps workflows. This innovation exemplifies how AI-driven intelligence can provide practical, immediate benefits in cloud management.

It was great to hear for a local AI company about what they are building and the successes they have had. This further reinforced Massachusetts’ role as a hub for cutting-edge AI applications.

Thats a Wrap

Massachusetts is at a pivotal moment in its journey to becoming a global AI leader. The incredible insights shared at the “Growing the Massachusetts AI Ecosystem” event underscore the state’s unique advantages and the strategic actions needed to capitalize on them. It also highlighted some of the great work being done here in the state by public, private, nonprofit and for-profit organizations. By fostering collaboration, investing in education and talent development, and leveraging cutting-edge AI tools and frameworks, I believe Massachusetts can set a new standard for AI innovation. As the Commonwealth continues to lead in AI research, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem building it offers a powerful model for how technology can drive progress for years to come.

However, the real test will be in execution. As Jeff Bussgang often says, strategy is only as good as its implementation. I’d encourage all stakeholders — DAIMLAS, educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs — to focus on measurable outcomes, equity, and community-building as they work to make Massachusetts a global AI leader. The state has all the ingredients for success, now it’s about putting them together in a way that drives lasting impact.

Author: Chris Marzilli, Grand Chief Strategist of the Federated Digital Infrastructure & Emerging Technology Governance Office, Supreme Overlord of Autonomous Machine Ethics, Chair of Quantum AI Consciousness Studies, Keeper of the Sacred AI Compliance Scrolls and self-appointed Head of the Department of Central Mass-holes.

AI Generated Job Titles rock — 300 characters — I win! 🎉

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Marz Rock: AI & Web3 Strategy and Consulting
Marz Rock: AI & Web3 Strategy and Consulting

Written by Marz Rock: AI & Web3 Strategy and Consulting

AI & Web3 Consultant and Enthusiast. Follow us in X here: https://x.com/themarzrock Learn more about our offerings here: https://www.marzrock.com/

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