It wasn’t long ago that policymakers worried the internet would split the country into digital “haves” and “have-nots,” leaving millions stranded without access to modern education, healthcare and economic opportunity.

So federal dollars poured into the states to help build broadband infrastructures. Kansas aggressively pursued those dollars, expanding statewide high-speed internet, rural connectivity, and digital-equity programs.

Now, AI has moved the goalposts. It changed internet access from a solution to merely the starting point.

AI fluency is the challenge ahead.

Unlike web browsers, which offer roughly the same internet experience to everyone, AI’s power scales with money and user sophistication. Far from just delivering information, it functions as an intellectual partner, extending cognitive reach and helping bridge the gap between our thoughts and real-world execution.

Those equipped to use it gain a decisive advantage. Everyone else falls behind.

The early adoption numbers tell the story.

A 2026 report from Microsoft shows AI isn’t spreading evenly across the country. It’s pooling in major metro areas and college towns, places with knowledge-driven industries, highly educated workforces and younger adults who use AI for a range of functions, not just schoolwork.

Kansas mirrors the pattern.

Douglas County leads the state with a 57.2% AI adoption – eighth in the entire country, followed by Riley (42.5%), Johnson (36.5%), Crawford (35.2%), and Ellis (31.4%). Four counties all home to major universities, while Johnson County anchors a large metro area that attracts knowledge‑based industries.

At the other end, the bottom ten counties are all rural, with adoption rates well below 15%.

Much like internet access before it, AI adoption tracks familiar fault lines of geography, income and education, compounding the considerable advantages of those already ahead. And, because high-adoption metro areas and college anchored counties lean Democratic, while low-adoption rural counties skew Republican, AI threatens to deepen political polarization.

Ultimately, communities will either be empowered by intelligent systems or marginalized by their absence.

It’s a mistake to ignore it.

A robust digital footprint means a community is included in the datasets that train AI models. Without it, communities are not represented in the algorithms shaping tomorrow’s decisions.

Kansas spent the past two decades and millions of dollars trying to close the digital divide. And that job isn’t even finished. One in ten Kansas households still do not have broadband and for households earning less than $20,000 that number jumps to one-third.

AI is poised to blow the divide wide open.

Expect fierce political battles ahead. Data center expansion, AI regulations, labor disruption and the massive wealth generated by this new economy will be key issues.

In an environment where tech fluency translates to political leverage, well-resourced adopters will dominate policy decisions.

And after the dust settles, we’ll be right back to square one. The concern about the “haves” and “have nots” returns. Governments will again scramble to catch up with a technology that evolves much quicker than our political institutions.

— Mark Joslyn is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.