Transforming Experience into Opportunity
How AI is Making Skills Visible and Unlocking Economic Mobility
Millions of Americans have valuable skills gained through military service, education, and on-the-job experience—but those skills often go unrecognized in today’s labor market. The U.S. Chamber Foundation's Experience You Phase 2 Report explores how a new generation of tools is changing that.
This report highlights the results of Experience You Phase 2, a multi-year initiative demonstrating how artificial intelligence and open data standards can convert real-world experience into Learning and Employment Records (LERs)—portable, verifiable digital records that make skills visible and actionable for employers.
Through field testing with nine partner organizations across education, workforce, and technology, the initiative shows how LERs can be integrated into real-world systems to support job seekers, employers, and career counselors.
The findings point to a clear shift:
The question is no longer whether skills-based systems can work—but how to scale them.
Key insights from the report include:
- A fundamental market gap: Millions of workers’ skills remain “invisible” due to barriers between experience and employer recognition systems.
- AI as a bridge: New tools can translate diverse experiences—from military service to informal learning—into structured, machine-readable records.
- Real-world validation: Field testing across multiple use cases demonstrated how LERs can support job placement, career navigation, and workforce transitions.
- Collaboration is critical: Cross-sector partnerships proved essential to building interoperable, scalable solutions.
- The path forward: With proof established, the focus now turns to building the infrastructure needed for widespread adoption.
Explore how skills-based hiring and AI-enabled records are reshaping the future of work—and what it will take to bring these solutions to scale.
Download the full report below.
