Jeffrey Oakman is the Founding Director of the New Jersey AI Hub, an innovation center affiliated with Princeton University that accelerates artificial intelligence research, entrepreneurship, and workforce development for the state of New Jersey. Under his leadership, the AI Hub has brought together major partners such as Princeton University and Microsoft, launched a 6,500-square-foot coworking and event space, and initiated statewide programs including a registered apprenticeship in AI and machine learning. Jeffrey previously served as policy advisor to the Governor of New Jersey and has a background that includes working in the White House and earning an additional degree after his undergraduate years at Rice University.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [02:19] Jeffrey Oakman explains why AI is critical for economic and workforce development
- [05:22] How public-private partnerships are accelerating AI innovation
- [12:35] Ways AI is being democratized for small businesses
- [14:52] How Princeton powers real-world AI apprenticeships and training
- [27:23] AI’s power to supercharge scientific discovery
In this episode…
AI is moving fast enough to make entire industries feel like they are trying to build the plane while flying it. So how can a state turn that uncertainty into real economic opportunity?
For Jeffrey Oakman, the key lies in building the right ecosystem around AI, not just chasing the newest tool. Drawing from his experience in economic development, workforce policy, and innovation strategy, Jeffrey explains that New Jersey’s approach is about connecting research institutions, startups, industry partners, and talent pipelines so ideas can move from labs into real-world use. His central argument is clear: AI’s future hinges on expanding access, strengthening training, and encouraging responsible adoption so workers and smaller organizations can keep pace rather than fall behind.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Jeffrey Oakman, Founding Director of the New Jersey AI Hub about shaping New Jersey’s AI future. They discuss building an AI innovation hub, supporting startups, preparing workers through upskilling, and using AI to accelerate scientific discovery. Jeffrey also talks about responsible AI adoption.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Jeffrey Oakman on LinkedIn
- New Jersey AI Hub: Website | LinkedIn
Special Mention(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “And so the upskilling is helping you evolve with the job.”
- “I mean, everybody’s job is changing whether they like it or not.”
- “Part of what we’re there to do is help those ideas find a way into the entrepreneurial pathway.”
- “I think many of the really innovative companies are being driven by what are the research needs and what sort of product needs and how can we evolve that in AI?”
- “There’s a lot of companies that are really on the cutting edge of what you can do with AI, and they’re transforming themselves with this technology.”
Action Steps:
- Build partnerships across AI ecosystems: Connecting universities, startups, industry leaders, and government can turn promising ideas into practical innovation and economic growth.
- Invest in workforce upskilling: Helping employees learn how to use AI effectively allows them to evolve with their jobs instead of being left behind.
- Create spaces for collaboration and experimentation: Bringing people together around new technologies can spark unexpected ideas, partnerships, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Make AI training accessible to smaller organizations: Democratizing access to simple, practical AI use cases helps small businesses and nonprofits benefit from tools that larger companies already use.
- Prioritize responsible and beneficial AI adoption: Keeping societal outcomes in mind ensures AI is used in ways that create value while supporting workers, communities, and long-term trust.
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
Okay, today we’re talking about the AI revolution. I have an expert who is standing up right now creating an AI hub affiliated with Princeton University. He has a lot of experience in this area. So we’re going to talk about what he is seeing. And his name is Jeffrey Oakman. I’ll tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.
Intro: 00:22
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now, let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:39
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week we have all kinds of experts. We’ve had CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs and authors and speakers. And increasingly the most important thing affecting business today is AI. We’ve had lots of different AI experts. And so today I’m bringing to the show an old friend.
First of all, before we get to that, of course, this episode brought to you by our company Rise25, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping companies to run their podcasts. We are the easy button for any company to launch and run a podcast. And if you want to learn more about that, go to our rise, go to our website, rise25.com.
And so let me tell you about my friend here. So Jeffrey and I worked together 25 years ago in the white House, brilliant guy, public policy strategist, innovation leader. And after leaving the white House, he went back, got an additional degree, and eventually ended up at Princeton University and then as a policy advisor to the governor of New Jersey and now has been involved in setting up this AI hub affiliated with Princeton and a couple of other organizations for the state of New Jersey. And so he and I were talking about AI, and I thought it would be a great chance to catch up with him and bring him on the show.
So, Jeffrey, it’s such an honor to have you here today, and it’s so great to catch up with you. Let’s start with how did you get into the world of AI? So at some point, you’re a policy advisor to the governor of New Jersey and where you’re kind of keeping your eye on this and thinking that this is something that the state needs to, you know, get more involved in.
Jeffrey Oakman: 02:19
Yeah. Thanks, John. It’s great to be here with you and with the audience, you know, happy to share what we’re doing over in New Jersey. I, so I didn’t, I didn’t come to AI specifically, you know, I sort of came to it the way a lot of people have, which is realizing that these tools are becoming not just much easier to use, but much more pervasive in terms of what they can do. And powerful.
My background is really in, in economic development and workforce development policy. And that’s what I was advising Governor Murphy on for, for five years during his term, which just just concluded a couple months ago when we. Or last month when we inaugurated Mikey, Cheryl as our new governor here in New Jersey. But. I was advising him on these issues, part of which was also the innovation portfolio.
Which in New Jersey was, you know, there’s an innovation, an office of innovation in the state, which is really focused on promoting digital government, thinking about how you can use digital tools to improve government transparency, you know, effectiveness, etc.. And so there was the governor who was really thinking about it. I came to AI both in terms of how does that make the government better, but also how is it an economic development opportunity for the state of New Jersey? And so we are those to sort of give the short version of, of, of how the AI hub came about. And sort of my involvement. We.
New Jersey has a program called Strategic Innovation Centers, where the state can provide funding to innovation hubs, kind of that focus on, on areas of strength in our economy. You know, whether it’s med tech or fintech or some of these some of these areas. And we decided that we should do one in AI, which is really sort of more of a horizontal technology, but an opportunity to kind of feed into all these other industry verticals, kind of how do you, how do you apply AI in this space? And so we decided to, to, to build out a strategic innovation center in partnership with Princeton University, brought on Microsoft and core. We’ve been corporate partners and, you know, and so I, I moved from the governor’s office personally, I moved my job from the governor’s office over to Princeton University.
And then the hub itself, once it got stood up to sort of be the person in charge of getting this thing off the ground.
John Corcoran: 04:59
And what does the hub do to spur that kind of innovation? How do you, you know, get involved in, you know, companies leveraging AI or creating new solutions, new innovations that haven’t existed before that lead to, you know, more jobs for the state.
Jeffrey Oakman: 05:22
Yeah. It’s interesting. I mean, our mission is, is one that I think is it’s, it seems natural, but it’s also it’s also interestingly, I don’t think that there’s any other state based entities that have have exactly the same, same focus, but it’s really just, it’s really mobilizing the partnerships and the, and the, the innovation infrastructure sort of, and the talent to kind of focus on, you know, how do you translate AI into economic and social value sort of across the spectrum. So we’re really focusing on a few different areas of the economy. One is, is, is the, you know, the research and development angle, you know, how do we spur innovation, you know, connecting with the research institutions and higher education around the state and connecting that into industry.
The second piece is really becoming an accelerator for startups. So how do we boost the startup economy and AI in New Jersey? The third is, how do we build a talent base? So focusing on workforce development from K through 12 up through higher ed and then and then upskilling of existing workers is obviously a huge piece of this. Fourth is thinking about responsible and beneficial use of AI.
And how do we make sure that that sort of everything we’re doing is foundationally done in a way, with, with, with the societal outcomes in mind. And then finally, I mean, the hub itself is a physical hub. We have. We have about 6500ft² of space in central New Jersey, right in Princeton, where we’re going to have co-working space for for AI startups, etc. so like hosting a bunch of events, you know, making sure that you’re like, I mean, a lot of it is that like, is that creating the, the.
John Corcoran: 07:19
Kind of the circumstance or the environment where people can come together and, you know, come up with innovations or ideas?
Jeffrey Oakman: 07:25
Absolutely. And, you know, everybody always looks at Silicon Valley, right? Is like, is like the, the model for this. And, and part of what Silicon Valley is, is just a place where everybody who’s in, who’s in tech in different spaces can interact with each other, right? And there’s, there’s like.
John Corcoran: 07:42
And actually to that point tonight, we’re recording this in February of 2026. And right now everyone’s talking about this Claude bot OpenClaw thing that has been kind of all the rage and it’s been going crazy with people talking about it. And there’s an event tonight with the creator of that in San Francisco, which I’m going to go to. It was on the wait list and it got off the wait list. And it’s at this AI co-working space.
I’m just going honestly, to be a fly on the wall because I feel like we’re at this inflection point where these crazy things happen. And, you know, you and I were working at the white House at the time that the whole.com internet, you know, the first bubble was going on and I felt like I missed out on some of those iconic meetings. You look back and sometimes like, you know, these billionaires and these innovators were all in the room at some event. And I’m hoping that this is one of those types of events, but do you plan on doing those sorts of things where you bring people together and say, hey, let’s focus on this one thing together and invite a bunch of people?
Jeffrey Oakman: 08:41
Yeah, for sure. We’ve started having a lot of events there, and we’re going to do a lot more. And I think part of it is, yeah, how do you get people with interesting ideas in front of other people who can take those ideas and run with them? Right. And I mean, I think like being connected to, I mean, not just Princeton, but, you know, like Rutgers and New Jersey Institute of Technology and all these higher ed institutions across the state.
Like there’s, there’s so many great ideas that like, you know, part of what part of what we’re there to do is help, help those ideas find a way into the entrepreneurial pathway and to sort of commercialize them into ways that people can use it. And I think, you know, to your point, like, you know, these types of events bring in people who are interested. And if you’re interested, you might have some other idea from a totally different discipline than that, that you can pair with it and something totally new happens. I mean, that’s the magic we have to try to create, right?
John Corcoran: 09:41