As well as Motor Equipment News we publish three other magazines, including DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing, due to this we get quite a lot of information arriving around the likely impacts of AI on businesses and employment.
One of the consistent themes we are seeing is that ‘The Trades’, are one of the areas that are likely to be ‘safest’ from AI threat, whether that be auto technicians, builders, plumbers, electricians, hairdressers or chefs. AI can help support these jobs – making diagnostics easier and speeding the admin side, but you will still need trained tradesmen to do the real work.
Skills Group, who do a lot of trades training, recently commented that in terms of trades that “These professions rely on human judgement, dexterity, creativity and real-time decision-making – capabilities that AI cannot meaningfully replicate.”
They also commented that “the trades themselves are evolving, driven by a wave of new digital tools – a shift they described as moving from spanners to scanners. Electrical apprentices, for example, now routinely use tablets for fault diagnostics before picking up their tools, blending digital capability with hands-on precision. Across the sector, smart sensors, drone footage, digital plans and AR/VR simulations are increasingly standard in training and on-the-job learning.”
Many parents still default to university as the safest pathway, unaware that some of the most secure, technology-proof careers sit within the trades.