Ryan Goodwin, Trinity Industries

“When I joined Trinity Rail eleven years ago, my whole team was drowning in Excel reports. Three weeks out of every month building reports, one week explaining them. I had this 65-year-old guy with a master's in statistics spending 75% of his time on manual data pulls. A master's in statistics! And he's basically become a swivel-chair robot. It's unfathomable.

But once he started using AI? He built complex workflows, automated his manual work. You want to talk about unleashing human potential? That's it right there. Here's a guy who is so brilliant, spent years getting multiple degrees, but was trapped doing data entry. Give him the tools, and he upskills himself. Americans are exceptional at falling down and getting back up again. Most people in the United States are willing to retool if you're willing to help them do it.

Humans might not be super efficient, but we are super flexible. There's nothing—no robot in the world right now—that's as flexible as a human being. And when you give Americans the tools to be flexible, to adapt, to upskill themselves, that's when magic happens. In five years, knowledge workers won't just be 20% more productive. They'll be 20 times more productive. AI isn't replacing the American dream; it's finally making that dream real for workers in ways we never imagined.”