AI is reshaping Pittsburgh’s job landscape, eliminating roles for some while creating new opportunities for others.
Popular edtech company Duolingo recently announced they will stop hiring contractors for work they believe AI can handle, for example. Conversely, the AI data center–fueled energy demand is behind a local company’s 100-person hiring push.
Will these trends show up in government? It’s now up to a Pittsburgher, at least in part, after he was appointed as the Pentagon’s new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, tasked with helping the US Department of Defense adopt new AI tech.
Read on below the chart for more on these developments, and other power moves.
Duolingo goes ‘AI-first’ in contracts and hiring
Earlier this week, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn announced via a memo that the company will gradually replace contractors with AI for tasks that can be automated, as part of its shift to become more “AI-first.”
Along with moving away from contracted work, Ahn announced “AI use” will be part of what the company looks for when hiring and evaluating employee performances.
The announcement follows Duolingo’s decision to cut about 10% of its contractor workforce in late 2023 for similar reasons. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company confirmed that AI was part of the reason for those cuts.
In the recent memo, Ahn likened the move to Duolingo’s previous bets on emerging technologies.
“When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait,” Ahn wrote in the memo. “In 2012, we bet on mobile. While others were focused on mobile companion apps for websites, we decided to build mobile-first because we saw it was the future… Betting on mobile made all the difference. We’re making a similar call now, and this time the platform shift is AI.”
Ahn said Duolingo will provide more training, mentorship and AI tools for existing staff, as it remains “a company that cares deeply about its employees.”
“This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI,” he wrote. “It’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have.”
Pittsburgh native named AI officer for Department of Defense
The US Department of Defense has named Pittsburgh native Douglas Matty as its new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer (CDAO).
In his new role, Matty will lead the DOD’s accelerated adoption of data, analytics and artificial intelligence to “generate decision advantage,” according to the CDAO website. He is the third official to lead the Pentagon’s AI office.
Prior to this appointment, Matty founded the US Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AI2C), which focuses on developing, coordinating and synchronizing the Army’s AI capabilities, and is located in a Bakery Square office space leased by Carnegie Mellon University. He was the director of US Army AI Capabilities for the Army Futures Command from 2020 to 2022.
Matty was critical in bringing AI2C to Pittsburgh, Joanna Doven, the executive director of Pittsburgh’s AI Strike Team, told the Pittsburgh Business Times. The center has been extremely significant in “thickening the defense tech ecosystem in Pittsburgh and especially AI Avenue,” she said.
ECI Telecom hiring 100 new employees
A local employee-owned company is looking to hire 100 new people in the coming months because of the growing demand for energy and industrial automation.
ECI, an automation control company located in Lawrence, PA, specializes in delivering Emerson Electric’s industrial control products, such as control valves, regulators, and actuators, to market, along with engineering support and automation solutions for industries like oil and gas, power and manufacturing.
The company is currently hiring for 100 new positions, 25% of its current workforce, in a variety of positions, including engineers, executive leadership, salespeople and project managers.
“When you look at the incredible demand on the power grid from things like artificial intelligence and growing investments of data centers, you look at new life science programs and pharmaceuticals, there’s a growing investment bed that’s happening here in Pittsburgh,” said ECI Chief Revenue Officer Loren Sjoquist in an interview with TechVibe Pittsburgh, a podcast produced by the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
As an employee-owned company, ECI has a profit-sharing program and a high employee retention rate, according to Sjoquist, who said the average tenure is eight years.
ECI is hosting a Tech Connect hiring event in partnership with the Pittsburgh Technology Council on May 15 at the ECI Operations Center in Lawrence.
More power moves:
- An employment data analysis by the Pittsburgh Business Times found Pittsburgh’s robotics and AI firms employ over 6,300 people locally, with the top employers being the Robotics Institute at CMU with 1,001 employees, Aurora Innovation with 800 and Google with 800.
- PNC COO William Parsley will step down from his position in July and take on the role of executive advisor until December, according to a filing from the US Securities and Exchanges Commission.
- Panopto, a Pittsburgh-based CMU spinout offering an AI-powered video learning platform, appointed Stephen Laster as its new CEO. Laster brings over two decades of executive experience to the role and will lead the company as it scales its platform.
- Local healthcare software firm Net Health named Christy Totin its new CFO, succeeding Patrick Rooney who will remain with the company as COO. Totin held several roles with Net Health before being promoted to her new position.
- Jeune Aesthetics, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Krystal Biotech, has appointed Marc Forth as its new CEO. With over 30 years of leadership experience, including helping launch Botox, he’ll guide the company’s effort to reverse skin aging using Krystal’s gene-delivery platform.
- Moon Township-based digital transformation firm Mastech Digital appointed Kannan Sugantharaman as both its new CFO and COO. His appointment coincides with Mastech’s transition to be a more data and AI-led technology services company.
- Local nonprofit Prototype PGH recently launched Step On Up: Maker to Manufacturer, a six-month workforce development program that trains students in skills needed to fill advanced manufacturing positions.
- Abridge CEO Shiv Rao cited “hypergrowth” as the reason why the AI startup is shifting its expansion focus to San Francisco, sparking debate in Pittsburgh’s ecosystem over local talent acquisition challenges.
- Pittsburgh’s job figures have steadily increased over the last five years, with the city adding more than 45,000 jobs since June 2020, according to recently released census data. Despite some losses due to the rise of remote work, downtown remains the region’s largest job center.
- Kashif Henderson, executive director of the nonprofit Neighborhood Learning Alliance, won the Pittsburgh Tech Council’s 2025 Tech Community Impact Award for his digital literacy efforts.
- Dina Powell McCormick, a Squirrel Hill resident, banking executive and wife of PA Senator Dave McCormick, was elected to Meta’s Board of Directors.
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