Boston employers with 100 or fewer Massachusetts employees can have live AI training reimbursed up to 100%: $3,000 per employee, up to $15,000 per year. You pay first, and the state reimburses you if approved.
Boston is known for its big names: teaching hospitals, universities, banks and asset managers. The Express Program is not built for them. It is built for the employers around them with 100 or fewer Massachusetts W-2 employees: the 14-person law office Downtown, the architecture studio in Back Bay, the accounting firm near the Seaport, the restaurant group in East Boston, the electrical contractor working out of Dorchester or Roxbury.
Those teams share a problem. The work that eats their week is not the work clients pay for. It is intake, scheduling, chasing documents, re-keying numbers and writing the same email for the fortieth time. Large employers hire specialists to fix that. A small Boston firm has to teach the people it already has.
The grant math is simple. Each course is 10 live, instructor-led hours at $3,000 per trainee. The state reimburses up to 100% of that, capped at $3,000 per employee per course and $15,000 per company per calendar year. Five employees in one course equals $15,000 in tuition, which is the annual cap. You pay the invoice first, and the money can come back if Commonwealth Corporation approves your application.
The full rules, the document list and the timeline are on our Massachusetts AI training grants page. For a read on your own company, use the form on this page to book a 15 minute eligibility call.
Boston's professional services base makes AI for Professional Practices the usual starting point. Law offices, accounting firms, architecture studios and advisory shops all run on documents, deadlines and client communication, and that is the kind of team this course is built for. It runs 2 hours a week for 5 weeks with up to 8 trainees.
Restaurants, hospitality groups, nonprofits and neighborhood retailers tend to fit AI Enablement for Small Business Teams. It suits a mixed group: a general manager, a bookkeeper, an events lead and an office admin can sit in the same cohort and bring their own tasks.
Contractors and building trades companies should look at AI for Field Service and Trades Businesses. Estimating, dispatch, job documentation and customer follow-up are the pressure points for a crew-based business, and the office staff who handle them are usually the W-2 employees you would enroll.
All three are 10 instructional hours at $3,000 per trainee, which sits inside the Express cap of $3,000 per employee per course.
Neither. The employer files the Express application online with Commonwealth Corporation, which administers the Workforce Training Fund Program for the state. The MassHire Boston Workforce Board is the regional workforce board for the city. It is a useful free resource for other hiring and training programs, but it does not run this grant. File at least 21 days before the course start date.
Yes, if they are on your W-2 payroll and work in Massachusetts. Part time W-2 employees are eligible trainees, the same as full time. Two conditions matter for a restaurant. Training hours must be paid at regular wages, so plan the 2 hour sessions as paid time. And temp workers, 1099 contractors and owners cannot be counted as trainees.
The rule is specific: trainees must be W-2 payroll employees who work in Massachusetts. Your staff who work in Boston meet that test, full or part time. An employee who works entirely from another state does not fit the rule as written. Hybrid schedules are less clear, so we go through your roster on the 15 minute eligibility call and you know who can be listed before you file.