Texas is home to second largest population of millionaires in the U.S.

The Millionaires Club

73,930 Texans were classified as millionaire tax filers in 2022. Photo via Getty Images

Tilman Fertitta, Elon Musk, Alice Walton, and Jerry Jones are members of the billionaires club in Texas. But just how many millionaires does the Lone Star State boast?

Altogether, 73,930 Texans were classified as millionaire tax filers in 2022, according to an analysis of IRS data by digital marketing firm Hennessey Digital. (For context, that millionaire count is just a few thousand shy of the entire population of Missouri City.) This figure puts Texas in the No. 2 spot for the country’s biggest population of millionaire taxpayers, behind first-place California.

However, if you crunch the figures a different way, Texas’ millionaire status isn’t quite as impressive, demonstrating that not everything is bigger in Texas. Texas ranks 10th among the states with the highest proportions of millionaire taxpayers, the study indicates. According to Hennessey Digital’s calculations, 27.1 of every 10,000 Texas tax filers reported adjusted gross income of at least $1 million for the 2022 tax year.

“The state’s booming economy, driven by energy, technology, and business-friendly policies, contributes to its wealthy population,” says Hennessey Digital.

Forbes ranked 43 Texans among the 400 wealthiest Americans last year, with Elon Musk topping the list. Houston hospitality king, Rockets owner, and newly appointed ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta was the 12th richest Texan and the 99th richest person in the United States, according to Forbes.

Which state comes out on top for the largest share of millionaire taxpayers? Connecticut, with 44.76 millionaire tax filers for every 10,000 filers, the Hennessey study shows. A number of well-to-do Connecticut suburbs are situated just a commuter train ride away from New York City, where bankers, brokers, and others pull in the big bucks. (Connecticut sits two spots above New York state in the millionaire ranking.)

The numbers in the study “highlight the diverse economic landscapes across our nation. States with favorable tax policies and thriving industries tend to attract more high-income earners,” says Jason Hennessey, CEO of Hennessey Digital. “Understanding these patterns can provide valuable insights for businesses and individuals making decisions about where to live, work, or invest.”

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.com.

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It's never too early to start thinking about the holiday shopping season. Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Texas ranks No. 5 worst state for package delays in U.S., report says

out for delivery

One of the biggest headaches of online shopping and package shipping is the potential for delivery issues, and Texas is among the worst places for them, according to a new study.

Online retailer Overnight Glasses determined that Texas is the No. 5 worst state for package delays, based on a nationwide analysis of internet searches regarding delayed or lost packages, statewide United States Postal Service (USPS) performances, and freight flows per capita.

The data showed Texas had the highest freight flow compared to the rest of the U.S., raking in $3.64 billion. But the state’s massive population is a major factor contributing to “logistical challenges,” as shown in Texas’ local USPS performance rates.

“The USPS performance rate in Texas at an average 65 percent, and issues with timely deliveries, as reflected in the search value of 85.0 gives the state a high position in the ranking,” the report said.

Given the vast number of packages being sent through Texas’ delivery infrastructure, it’s safe to say Santa's going to be working overtime to fulfill the online orders for Houston's biggest spenders over the holidays.

The absolute worst place in the U.S. for package delays was North Dakota, which ranked as the No. 1 worst state for package delays.

The study found residents frequently search delivery issue terms such as “package delayed” or “order not delivered,” which doesn’t bode well for a state with a population of just 783,000.

“In today’s world, where everyone expects quick deliveries, even small hiccups can lead to a lot of frustration,” an Overnight Glasses spokesperson said. “I think this study highlights a real need for companies to invest in better, more flexible logistics networks, especially in states where freight flow is high.”

The best state for getting your packages delivered in a timely manner was Hawaii, followed by Oklahoma, West Virginia, Maryland, and Mississippi.

The top 10 worst U.S. states for package delivery issues are:

  • No. 1 – North Dakota
  • No. 2 – Georgia
  • No. 3 – Illinois
  • No. 4 – New York
  • No. 5 – Texas
  • No. 6 – Wyoming
  • No. 7 – Washington
  • No. 8 – Virginia
  • No. 9 – Massachusetts
  • No. 10 – South Carolina

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Here's how Texas towns stacked up on a new population report. Photo via Getty Images

Booming Houston suburb, other Texas towns among the fastest-growing U.S. cities in 2023

by the numbers

One Houston suburb experienced one of the most rapid growth spurts in the country last year: Fulshear, whose population grew by 25.6 percent, more than 51 times that of the nation’s growth rate of 0.5 percent. The city's population was 42,616 as of July 1, 2023.

According to U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2023 Population Estimates, released Thursday, May 16, Fulshear — which lies west of Katy in northwest Fort Bend County - ranked No. 2 on the list of fastest-growing cities with a population of 20,000 or more. It's no wonder iconic Houston restaurants like Molina's Cantina see opportunities there.

The South still dominates the nation's growth, even as America’s Northeast and Midwest cities are rebounding slightly from years of population drops. The census estimates showed 13 of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. were in the South — eight in Texas alone.

The Texas cities joining Fulshear on the fastest-growing-cities list are:

  • Celina (No. 1) with 26.6 percent growth (42,616 total population)
  • Princeton (No. 3) with 22.3 percent growth (28,027 total population)
  • Anna (No. 4) with 16.9 percent growth (27,501 total population)
  • Georgetown (No. 8) with 10.6 percent growth (96,312 total population)
  • Prosper (No. 9) with 10.5 percent growth (41,660 total population)
  • Forney (No. 10) with 10.4 percent growth (35,470 total population)
  • Kyle (No. 11) with 9 percent growth (62,548 total population)

Texas trends
San Antonio saw the biggest growth spurt in the United States last year, numbers-wise. The Alamo City added about 22,000 residents. San Antonio now has nearly 1.5 million people, making it the the seventh largest city in the U.S. and second largest in Texas.

Its population boom was followed by those of other Southern cities, including Fort Worth; Charlotte, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Fast-growing Fort Worth (978,000) surpassed San Jose, California (970,000) to become the 12th most populous city in the country.

Meanwhile, population slowed in the Austin area. Jacksonville, Florida (986,000), outpaced Austin (980,000), pushing the Texas capital to 11th largest city in the U.S. (barely ahead of Fort Worth).

Population growth in Georgetown, outside Austin, slowed by more than one-fourth its population growth in 2022, the report says, from 14.4 percent to 10.6 percent. It's the same story in the Central Texas city of Kyle, whose population growth decreased by nearly 2 percent to 9 percent in 2023.

Most populated cities
New York City with nearly 8.3 million people remained the nation's largest city in population as of July 1, 2023. Los Angeles was second at close to 4 million residents, while Chicago was third at 2.7 million and Houston was fourth at 2.3 million residents.

The 15 populous U.S. cities in 2023 were:

  1. New York, New York (8.3 million)
  2. Los Angeles, California (4 million)
  3. Chicago, Illinois (2.7 million)
  4. Houston, Texas (2.3 million)
  5. Phoenix, Arizona (1.7 million)
  6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1.6 million)
  7. San Antonio (1.5 million)
  8. San Diego, California (1.4 million)
  9. Dallas (1.3 million)
  10. Jacksonville, Florida (986,000)
  11. Austin (980,000)
  12. Fort Worth (978,000)
  13. San Jose (970,000)
  14. Columbus, Ohio (913,000)
  15. Charlotte, North Carolina (911,000)

Modest reversals of population declines were seen last year in large cities in the nation's Northeast and Midwest. Detroit, for example, which grew for the first time in decades, had seen an exodus of people since the 1950s. Yet the estimates released Thursday show the population of Michigan’s largest city rose by just 1,852 people from 631,366 in 2022 to 633,218 last year.

It's a milestone for Detroit, which had 1.8 million residents in the 1950s only to see its population dwindle and then plummet through suburban white flight, a 1967 race riot, the migration to the suburbs by many of the Black middle class and the national economic downturn that foreshadowed the city's 2013 bankruptcy filing.

Three of the largest cities in the U.S. that had been bleeding residents this decade staunched those departures somewhat. New York City, which has lost almost 550,000 residents this decade so far, saw a drop of only 77,000 residents last year, about three-fifths the numbers from the previous year.

Los Angeles lost only 1,800 people last year, following a decline in the 2020s of almost 78,000 residents. Chicago, which has lost almost 82,000 people this decade, only had a population drop of 8,200 residents last year.

And San Francisco, which has lost a greater share of residents this decade than any other big city — almost 7.5 percent — actually grew by more than 1,200 residents last year.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Houstonians live well. Photo via Getty Images

Houston scores respectable rank in new report of best U.S. cities for working-class families

is the living easy?

A new economic analysis by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) has revealed that Houston-The-Woodlands-Sugar Land has the 30th most prosperous local economy in the nation. The analysis ranked the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S. based on several localized economic factors.

According to Houston's data, the region's population has skyrocketed 18.7 percent within the last decade, now reaching over 7.34 million people. The median age of an Houston-area resident is 35.1-years-old.

The three main criteria that determined Houston's prospering rank include a "True Living Cost" metric that tracks price changes for essential household necessities; a "True Weekly Earnings" calculation that determines the median weekly earnings of all workers (including part-timers and those who are unemployed); and a "True Rate of Unemployment Out of the Population" metric that measures the percentage of people unable to find full-time employment with a living wage.

The findings show that a little more than half of all Houston-area households are earning enough income to afford their basic needs. The remaining 46.4 percent are struggling due to a high cost of living, the report said.

"The total costs of necessities for a 4-person family [in Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land] increased 58.2 percent since 2005 from $54,052 to $85,492," the report said.

Furthermore, Houstonians are bringing home higher weekly earnings than they were in 2020. Houston workers are earning a median $894.89 per week, or about $47,429.17 a year. The report states the average employee has gained 8.2 percent more purchasing power since 2005, and the average Houston household has 8.1 percent of their income leftover after their necessities.

Houston's "True Rate of Unemployment Out of the Population" is 63 percent, according to the analysis.

The objective behind LISEP's report is to help policymakers assess their local economies' dynamics and to assess how much low-income and working-class families are affected, according to LISEP Chairman Gene Ludwig in the release.

"Across the nation we are seeing both ends of the spectrum — communities where middle- and working-class families are faring well and others where financial survival remains a struggle," Ludwig said. "Our challenge here is in identifying what's working well and replicating it; what's not, and scrapping it. This is where real-world data can be invaluable to policymakers."

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land wasn't the only Texas metro area to earn a spot in the analysis. Austin-Round Rock worked its way up into No. 2 nationally, while San Antonio-New Braunfels ranked just outside the top 10 at No. 13. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked four spots higher than Houston at No. 26.

The top 10 highest-performing economies in the U.S. are:

  • No. 1 – San Jose-Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, California
  • No. 2 – Austin-Round Rock, Texas
  • No. 3 – San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California
  • No. 4 – Baltimroe-Columbia-Towson, Maryland
  • No. 5 – Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, District of Columbia-Virginia-Maryland
  • No. 6 – Minneapolis-St. Paul-Blookington, Minnesota-Wisconsin
  • No. 7 – Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon-Washington
  • No. 8 – Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin
  • No. 9 – Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado
  • No. 10 – Salt Lake City, Utah
The full report and its methodology can be found on lisep.org.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The Texas/California pipeline works both ways, a new study reveals. Photo via Getty Images

Texas and California battle it out for most relocating residents, Census report says

by the numbers

Texans love to joke about how many Californians are moving here, but a rising trend in Texas residents' relocation habits may have Californians saying the same thing about Texans soon.

A new U.S. Census report analyzing state-to-state migration has revealed new estimates regarding Texas' growing population in 2022. According to the report, more than 668,000 new residents relocated to Texas from out-of-state last year.

Not surprisingly, the highest number of new Texans hailed from California. More than 102,000 Californians made the move to the Lone Star State in 2022.

But in a fun population twist, California also received the most Texpats in 2022, the report showed, followed closely behind by Florida, then Oklahoma. Of the 494,077 people who left Texas last year, 42,279 went to California.

Why Californians move to Texas
Californians often seek out a lower cost of living by moving to the most "affordable" cities in the state. Houston has shown to be at the top of the priority destination list; Dallas usurped Austin as the No. 1 city for California movers earlier this year. And when a California transplant can save more than $646,000 by moving to Texas and buying a home in Houston, it's not hard to see the appeal

Other reasons for the California-to-Texas exodus include the lack of income tax and the flexibility of remote work opportunities, they say.

While California took the lead with the most new movers flocking to Texas, Floridians are also choosing to pack up and leave their Sunshine State for the Lone Star State, the report says.

The top 5 states with the most residents moving to Texas in 2022 were:

  • California – 102,442 new residents
  • Florida – 41,747 new residents
  • New York – 30,890 new residents
  • Illinois – 25,272 new residents
  • Louisiana – 25,192 new residents

Where Texans are moving
The Census report showed that less than half a million Texas residents relocated out-of-state last year, totaling 494,077 people.

"Texas had the country's lowest (11.7 percent) outmigration rate, with most of those who did move relocating to California (42,479) or Florida (38,207)," the report said.

The top five states where Texans moved in 2022 were:

  • California – 42,279 Texans
  • Florida – 38,207 Texans
  • Oklahoma – 26,440 Texans
  • Colorado – 25,466 Texans
  • Georgia – 23,754 Texans

New Texans from abroad
In addition to state-by-state migration data, the report also provided estimates for how many new Texans came from abroad. Out of 237,051 new residents, the majority – 233,751 people – relocated from outside the mainland last year.

About 2,441 people moved from Puerto Rico, and 859 arrived from unspecified U.S. island areas.

Texas has been a magnet for international homebuyers for several years. The state has held its position as the third hottest U.S. housing market for international homebuyers for the fourth consecutive year in 2023. A total of 9,900 Texas homes were purchased by buyers from outside the U.S last year, spending a gigantic sum of $4.3 billion.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Chicago and New York residents are eyeing Houston. Getty Images

Report finds two major metros are the biggest sources of new Houstonians

new to hou

Despite the current state of things — a pandemic, historic unemployment numbers, and an unstable economy — people are still thinking of moving. And, according to Apartment List, they have eyes on Texas.

The website's quarterly Renter Migration Report is out, using searches made on its platform between January 1 and April 15, 2020, to map where renters are looking to make their next move.

Chicago (3.3 percent), New York (3.4 percent), and San Antonio (22.8 percent) are also eyeing Houston, while H-Town residents are looking to keep it close in Dallas (8.9 percent), San Antonio (6.8 percent), and Austin (6.6 percent).

Austin is the most popular Texas city in the report, with the region increasingly being seen as an alternative to the expensive coastal metros where tech jobs have historically clustered. A staggering 70.9 percent of searches for apartments in Austin come from outside the metro, Apartment List reports, the highest share among the nation's 50 largest metros.

Aside from the 25 percent searching from San Antonio, the 4.6 percent from Dallas, and the 4.5 percent from Houston, 4.2 percent of renters searching for apartments in Austin currently live in the New York City metro. Furthermore, 2.5 percent of inbound searches to Austin are coming from Los Angeles and an additional 2.5 percent are coming from the San Francisco Bay Area.

For as many people who want to enter Austin from San Antonio, there's nearly the same amount that would be doing the opposite. Austin renters searched for San Antonio (16.8 percent), Dallas (7.9 percent), and College Station (6.4 percent).

While current Chicago residents and New Yorkers are typing "Dallas" into their search bars, accounting for 3.6 percent and 3 percent of data exploring Big D, respectively, it's San Antonians who are truly interested. A whopping 23.1 percent of current Alamo City residents made exploratory apartment searches in Dallas this past quarter. Overall, 32.8 percent of those looking for a place to live in Dallas are searching from outside the metro.

Meanwhile, 8.7 percent of apartment hunters currently living in Dallas are looking to move elsewhere. They searched for Houston (4.9 percent), San Antonio (4.8 percent), and Los Angeles (4.5 percent).

And though we've heard about it several times, where does San Antonio fall in all this? Turns out renters who currently live there are thinking about moving to Dallas (17.7 percent), followed by Houston (12.4 percent) and Austin (8.4 percent). Residents of McAllen (5 percent), Dallas (3.9 percent), and Houston (3.5 percent) are considering making San Antonio home.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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New statewide plan aims to eliminate cervical cancer in Texas by 2032

fighting cancer

MD Anderson, on behalf of a coalition of health systems, has announced a new plan to eliminate cervical cancer in Texas.

The five-year Texas Lone Star Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan was launched during the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) 2026 Innovations Conference in Galveston this month.

The plan focuses on three major pillars with goals to be achieved by 2032:

  • HPV vaccination: Increase the percentage of Texas boys and girls up to date on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination by age 15 from 50.5 percent to 80 percent
  • Cervical cancer screening: Raise the share of Texas women up to date on cervical cancer screening from 64 percent to 80 percent
  • Timely follow-up, diagnosis and treatment: Ensure 80 percent of women receive diagnostic follow-up and treatment when needed through community outreach, patient navigation, provider training and survivorship support

Overall, the coalition wants to see fewer than four new cases of cervical cancer annually per 100,000 Texas women by 2032, according to a news release from MD Anderson. Currently, Texas has an incidence rate of 9.5 women per 100,000 diagnosed with cervical cancer, compared with 7.5 women per 100,000 nationally.

“Texas has the tools to prevent nearly every case of cervical cancer, but tools can save lives only when people can utilize them,” Dr. Ernest Hawk, vice president and division head of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at MD Anderson, said in the release. “The Lone Star Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan gives us a shared roadmap to vaccinate more of our children, screen more of our women and make sure every abnormal result leads to care. With innovations like HPV self-collection and the commitment of partners across the state, elimination is within reach.”

About 40 other hospitals, health care organizations and companies join MD Anderson in the coalition that launched the Lonestar Plan. Those based in Houston include Houston Methodist, Rice University, UTHealth Houston, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston Health Department and others.

The CPRIT also announced its Texans Conquer Cancer Awards and its CPRIT Champion awards during the Innovations Conference this week. Several are based in Houston, including:

  • Zhiqiang An, co-founder of CrossBridge Bio, Director of the Texas Therapeutics Institute, and Vice President of Drug Discovery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Dr. Abbey Berenson, Director of the UTMB Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health Care
  • Dr. Michael Taylor, Chair of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center and Director of Texas Children's Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Program

To date, the CPRIT has awarded more than $4.2 billion in grants to fight cancer in the state. Over the summer, it awarded four $2 million grants to institutions in Houston and Bryan for the creation or expansion of “core” cancer research facilities.

Texas Medical Center Innovation recently announced that its $2 million grant would renew its Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics for five years. Read more from TMCi about the renewal here.

Announcing the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists

Inspirational Innovators

InnovationMap is proud to reveal the finalists for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards.

The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program returns in an all-digital format this fall to honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more.

Finalists were determined by our esteemed panel of judges, comprised of past award winners and InnovationMap editorial leadership.

The panel reviewed applications across 10 prestigious categories to determine our finalists. They will select the winner for each category, except for Startup of the Year, which will be chosen by the public via online voting launching later this month.

We will announce the honoree of our annual Trailblazer Award in the coming weeks, then stay tuned as we unveil all of this year's winners on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Get to know our finalists in more detail through editorial spotlights leading up to the winner announcement. Without further ado, here are the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists:

Minority-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation:

  • AI Made Fun
  • Deep Anchor Solutions
  • HEXAspec
  • Prana Surgical
  • Torres Orbital Mining Inc.

Female-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman:

  • Adair
  • ARIX Technologies
  • Bairitone Health
  • FlowCellutions
  • ParaDocs Health

Energy Transition Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and beyond:

  • Capwell Services
  • FlowCellutions
  • Hertha Metals
  • Mars Materials
  • Solidec

Health Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors:

  • Bairitone Health
  • InformAI Inc.
  • Prana Surgical
  • Skybound MedTech

Deep Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors:

  • Casimir
  • Focis AI
  • Machine Saver Inc.
  • Square Robot
  • Venus Aerospace

Startup of the Year (People's Choice)

Honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an online voting experience:

  • Fluxworks
  • IronLattice
  • Lumino
  • Progress Report
  • Rosarium Health
  • Thread
  • TokenRoster

Scaleup of the Year

Honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth:

  • Erock
  • Hertha Metals
  • Venus Aerospace

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups:

  • Activate
  • Impact Hub Houston
  • MarMo Innovation

Mentor of the Year

Honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs:

  • Al Danto, Rice University
  • Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures
  • Jeremy Pitts, Activate
  • Joe Alapat, Liongard
  • Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Trailblazer Recipient

  • To be announced

Q&A: TIME100 AI honoree Angle Bush on building Houston’s artificial intelligence future

AI builder

Angle Bush, founder and CEO of Black Women in Artificial Intelligence, has a running question for her organization's members: Are you in the lab?

For Bush, inquiry isn’t philosophical. Learning about artificial intelligence is one thing. But building with it? Developing products, solving problems and creating a stake in the emerging AI economy? That’s another thing entirely—and exactly the point.

Bush’s own path into AI began in 2019 with an unlikely project: a robot named Usher, designed to bring her hot cocoa. She went down what she calls “YouTube University” to figure out how to build it and kept encountering another subject: artificial intelligence. Her curiosity eventually led her to a Houston AI event, where she noticed something missing.

She didn’t see a full reflection of herself, prompting a bigger question: If AI was becoming a transformative force, who would have a role in shaping it? Her answer became the premise for what came next: There couldn’t be an AI revolution without Black women.

Bush never finished Usher. Instead, she built Black Women in Artificial Intelligence, which has grown into a global organization with members across five continents.

Six years after launching BWIAI, the Houston founder was named to the 2026 TIME100 AI, TIME’s annual list recognizing 100 of the world’s most influential people in artificial intelligence.

The recognition is significant, but Bush is focused on what comes next: moving people beyond AI literacy and adoption and into creation—turning ideas into deployed products, building economic opportunity and ensuring more people have a hand in shaping the technology.

That mission brings Bush back to Houston, where she sees an opportunity to build on the city’s entrepreneurial culture while advancing conversations around responsible and ethical AI.

InnovationMap spoke with Bush about her TIME100 AI recognition, her push to get more people building with AI, Houston’s role in the technology’s future and her simple message: Get in the lab.

InnovationMap: What accomplishment at BWIAI are you most proud of?

Angle Bush: This past March, 11 of our members designed and deployed products and services utilizing artificial intelligence. For me, that's what we want to do. We're looking for builders. I continually ask our members: Are you in the lab? What are you building?

We have members here in Houston who built a conference app designed to help people better understand and navigate the conference experience. We also have Shonda and Shalisha Witherspoon, The Digital Twins, who created a patent assistant to help individuals interested in creating a patent for their product or service.

For me, watching those women move dreams from notebooks to deployment is more important than anything else. Notebooks are designed to hold your dreams, but not keep your dreams.

For NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, if you wanted to participate as part of the Black Women in AI delegation, you had to build something. You couldn't just give me a concept and say, “Hey, Angle, I'm building ABC.” No. I needed you to design it, build it and deploy it. That will continually be one of the things I'm most proud of.

IM: Why is building so important to you?

AB: I've been saying that from the beginning because I tell people all the time: I can talk all day. We can have this conversation all day. But at the end of the day, are we building? What is the result?

Conversation is great. It can provide insight. But we have to put our hands on products. We have to put our hands on the APIs. We have to put our hands on that knowledge and ask, What do we do with it?

After you learn it, what are you doing with it? Are you going to create an app that helps your family? Are you creating an app that allows you to be part of the AI economy in a way that you can control? We're all going to be part of the AI economy at some point based on our careers and everything else. But what part of it can you control?

IM: What's next for Black Women in Artificial Intelligence?

AB: I want to continue our mission to educate, engage, embrace and empower Black women in AI. I want our organization to serve as an opportunity for women to build. How do we build? How do we understand how to build? How do we move beyond how we've been conditioned and start asking questions—not only of ourselves, but also the right questions of corporations?

Long term, I want us to continue building, and then I want us to pass that knowledge and insight down to the next generation. But I also want us to reach back to generations that may not have had this opportunity when they were younger. Maybe they were discouraged from going into STEM when they were younger. I want them to know that you can still build. It doesn't matter what your age is. It doesn't matter what college or university you attended. If you have an idea, we want to democratize AI so that you can build.

IM: BWIAI's story began in Houston. What role do you think Houston can play in the AI boom?

AB: First, I absolutely love Houston. I'm originally from Chicago and was raised in Saginaw, Michigan. But as they say, I got to Houston as quickly as I could. I think Houston has a great opportunity to position itself as a center of excellence for innovation. We have an entrepreneurial spirit and drive that I believe is unmatched.

And as much as we have entrepreneurs, we also have advocates who want to see the ethical use of AI. I think we'll see a rise in entrepreneurship. Houston is already building that ecosystem with the Ion and other entities coming into the fold.

As far as the mark Black Women in Artificial Intelligence will make in Houston, I think we'll bring a different perspective to the city's AI ecosystem. We'll make an impact on the entrepreneurial side, but also on the advocacy side when it comes to the responsible and ethical use of AI, which isn't always talked about.

IM: One of the biggest concerns surrounding AI is its potential to displace workers faster than people can acquire new skills. How should we be thinking about that?

AB: In full transparency, that's a tough question to answer because AI is moving so quickly. There are so many different models and so many different things happening that it can appear as though they're coming out of thin air.

For me, it's a matter of how we work with individuals so they can think more about the system than the model, because the models can retire. The impact this is going to have on communities globally is going to be an interesting dynamic. With the work we're doing at Black Women in Artificial Intelligence, this is our mitigation system: How can we bring individuals along so they can learn artificial intelligence and understand that there is a pivot—and it's not coming. It's happening right now, live.

How can we create an ecosystem where individuals get the training, support and understanding they need? For me, that's how we mitigate it: by creating a space where individuals can learn how to pivot.

IM: If readers take one thing away from this conversation, what do you want it to be?

AB: How important it is to be in the lab. It is important to start building today—not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. We have to be in the lab today. That's it.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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