AI is often treated as something that lives in the cloud. In practice, it is one of the most place-intensive economic shifts underway. Data centers need power, land, water, and infrastructure. Chip fabrication and advanced manufacturing require specialized workers, suppliers, and public investment. Together, those demands are redrawing the geography of American growth and changing what companies need from the places where they operate. Drawing on more than two decades advising more than 125 cities and regions, Pedigo shows where the AI economy is taking root, which places are positioned to benefit, and where the pressure points will emerge. He gives business and civic leaders a grounded way to understand AI as a set of choices about investment, infrastructure, talent, and place.

For years, the geography of American growth appeared settled. Investment flowed to a short list of coastal metros, while many other markets were treated as afterthoughts. That map is being redrawn. Energy capacity, reshored production, supply-chain investment, available land, and shifting migration patterns are directing capital toward a wider set of regions. At the same time, established winners face new constraints around affordability, infrastructure, and talent. Pedigo draws on his work with cities, regions, developers, and companies to explain where growth is moving, why it is moving there, and how leaders can act on the shift. For corporate leaders, site selectors, investors, and regional leaders, the talk sharpens decisions about where to invest, where to expand, and how to compete.

Every region has a plan. Far fewer have the discipline and civic capacity to deliver it. Across more than 125 city and regional engagements, Pedigo has seen the same divide: winning regions make choices, align public and private leadership, and put real capacity behind a small number of priorities. Places that stall confuse a long list of ideas with a strategy. This talk is an honest examination of why execution breaks down and what strong regions do instead. Pedigo gives economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, civic leadership groups, and elected officials a practical benchmark for their own community, along with concrete practices they can begin using as soon as they get home.

Cities and companies have spent a generation trying to import talent. That approach was never enough, and in a tighter labor market it is no longer a strategy. Much of the talent that will power AI, energy, advanced manufacturing, and the skilled trades already lives in the communities seeking those jobs. The challenge is building credible pathways between residents and employers. Pedigo draws on his work designing workforce academies and sector partnerships to focus on the hard middle between a job announcement and a real opportunity: employer demand, training design, recruitment, support for participants, and accountable partnerships. Each presentation is tailored to the host industry or region and gives leaders a model for building talent pipelines that employers trust and residents can use.

Location was supposed to matter less in a digital economy. Instead, the most valuable parts of business still cluster: specialized talent, knowledge, suppliers, capital, and trust. That makes location a business strategy, not a real estate decision. Pedigo shows why companies perform better when they understand and invest in the places around them. Talent ecosystems, civic institutions, housing, and quality of place shape a company's ability to recruit, innovate, and remain competitive. The talk gives executives and civic leaders a common language for decisions too often made separately: where to locate, how to attract talent, what to invest in, and how to build a stronger relationship with the community.