Verizon announced a $70 million commitment to AI training on 23 September 2026, combining $50 million in new funding with $20 million already committed to workers leaving the company, according to its announcement. The Verizon AI Skills for America initiative is intended to provide free training to job seekers, small businesses and other learners across the United States.
Key points
- The $70 million commitment comprises $50 million in new funding and an existing $20 million fund for departing Verizon workers.
- Verizon is curating free training content from IBM, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Coursera and OpenAI.
- Community organisations are expected to provide coaching and guidance alongside the online coursework.
$50 million extends Verizon’s worker training commitment
The $20 million component is Verizon’s existing Reskilling and Career Transition Fund for departing employees. The company is adding $50 million in new funding for the broader initiative, which it says will offer AI training without a charge to learners. Verizon bears the cost of the announced commitment.
Verizon names job seekers, early career professionals, displaced workers, educators and small businesses as intended participants. It also includes students and people moving between jobs among the learners it wants to reach. The existing fund, by contrast, was set up for employees leaving Verizon.
Verizon says training of this kind can cost more than $700 per person per year. Its proposed offer gives participants access to the resources for free. The company describes the initiative as a way to expand AI skills across the American workforce and support small businesses.
Dan Schulman, Verizon’s chief executive, said companies should invest in people as urgently as they invest in technology. He said access to training could help workers retain jobs or manage a change in employment, while giving small businesses skills they could use to grow.
Six providers supply Verizon’s planned portal
Verizon is curating an online portal with AI training content from IBM, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Coursera and OpenAI. The company says participants will be able to use the material without paying. Its plan brings resources from those providers together rather than presenting the initiative as a single course.
Donna Epps, Verizon’s Chief Responsible Business Officer, said the technology partners were working with the company to make training available in local communities free of charge. Verizon is pairing the online material with assistance from organisations involved in workforce development.
The training is intended for people at different career stages as well as businesses and educators. Verizon says its approach combines access to the providers’ coursework with guidance for participants using it. That local support is a separate part of the programme from the portal Verizon is putting together.
Schulman called for companies to work with one another and with the public sector on workforce training. Verizon says it also wants to engage public bodies and nonprofit organisations as it develops the initiative. Those proposed relationships sit alongside the technology providers supplying course material.
Goodwill joins Verizon’s community training partners
Verizon named Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship and Goodwill Industries International among its community partners. It expects organisations active in workforce development to help participants use the online coursework through coaching and local guidance.
The company says giving learners access to content alone is insufficient, drawing on its experience with other digital-skills efforts. It describes hands-on coaching and curriculum guidance as part of the community organisations’ role. Those activities are intended to help learners apply what they study online.
Verizon’s proposed delivery model puts those organisations between the online courses and people seeking training in their communities. The partners named by the company work in community development, college entrepreneurship and employment support. Verizon says their local relationships will help participants navigate the material.
Steven C. Preston, chief executive of Goodwill Industries International, said the partnership would let people build practical AI skills through their local Goodwill. He said Goodwill’s work with employers and job seekers would inform that support as jobs change.
