The logo for “AI Impacting Chattanooga & Hamilton County” highlights the region’s focus on integrating artificial intelligence into key local industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.
Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t something that will become a part of Chattanooga gradually over the next five years. AI is already woven into the industries that pay most of our wages. Between now and 2030, expect AI to quietly but very literally reshape who gets hired, trained, and promoted.
According to the Chattanooga Chamber’s 2025 major employers list, Erlanger Health System employees about 6,000 full-time employees, Hamilton County Schools has 5,781 employees, Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant employs 5,239, and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has 4,145 workers.
The significance is that these names sit on top of a regional economy built on manufacturing, healthcare, insurance/finance, logistics, and a sizable tourism sector that supports roughly 12,770 jobs in Hamilton County alone.
Chattanooga has built a strong technological foundation, evolving from the original “Gig City” to offering 25-gig service. Now, the city is launching “Gig City Goes Quantum,” preparing Chattanooga and Hamilton County for the next wave of jobs in quantum and advanced computing through EPB’s new quantum network.
What does AI and advanced computing look like in local industries?
Over the next five years:
• Healthcare and insurance industries, including Erlanger and BlueCross will deploy more AI in imaging, triage, billing, and fraud detection. That favors clinical staff who are comfortable working with algorithms and dashboards–nurses and coders who understand both patient care and data.
• Manufacturing and EV production at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, now a hub for electric vehicles and battery engineering, will deepen its use of AI-enabled automation to drive productivity gains of 20–30%. Line jobs will increasingly blend hands-on work with robot maintenance, sensor troubleshooting, and quality analytics.
• Logistics, tourism, and finance/real estate will lean on AI for routing, pricing, customer service, and risk modeling–affecting everything from warehouse supervisors to hotel managers and underwriters.
Statewide, manufacturing remains Tennessee’s largest contributor to GDP at more than $68 billion in 2024–even as manufacturing job counts slip due to automation and robotics. The state’s own employment outlook expects healthcare and social assistance, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality to remain the biggest job holders by 2032, with faster growth in information and management sectors. AI and data skills are concentrated in each of these sectors.
AI is already described by University of Tennessee engineers as “a force in Tennessee’s economy,” with the state poised to lead in smart infrastructure, cybersecurity, and advanced mobility over the coming decade. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects data scientist employment to grow about 34% from 2024 to 2034, far faster than average.
For Chattanoogans to win, the question isn’t whether AI comes for our jobs, but whether we fill the new AI-shaped roles. The metro area’s 260,000-plus jobs earning an average wage around $54,000 must respond to new roles and required skills changing in real time.
Local employers, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga State, and efforts like Chattanooga 2.0 must prioritize data and automation skills as basic workforce literacy–so that the next five years of AI growth look less like disruption from outside, and more like opportunity built here at home.