Ed Brady is the President and CEO of Home Builders Institute (HBI). Prior to this appointment in 2018, Brady led a large regional home building company in Illinois. Following the 2008 financial crisis, he served on the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission, working with other leading experts to advance the nation’s housing policy.
The AI backlash is real. And it has college graduates booing commencement speakers at any mention of the powerful new technology, as fears of AI-driven mass job losses take hold.
On Friday, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by an audience of disapproving graduates at the University of Arizona.“The question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will,” Schmidt said. “The question is whether you will have shaped artificial intelligence.”
Instead of cheers, Schmidt’s visionary message was resoundingly rejected.
Across the country at the University of Central Florida last week, the same message was met with the same response.
Real estate executive Gloria Caulfield said in typical commencement fashion:
“We are living in a time of profound change. Change is exciting. And let’s face it: change can be daunting. The rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution.”
Students quickly booed Caulfield’s AI optimism, leaving her confused. Students then booed several more times, including when she explained that “now AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands.”
The disconnect is huge. While many corporate executives see AI opportunities, graduates are seeing millions of potential job losses and broken dreams. But here’s the good news: blue-collar jobs are not only booming, they are AI-proof.
Let’s think this through: AI data centers are massive physical buildings that are necessary for powering America’s industrial-scale AI capabilities, and these enormous projects are just starting to emerge around the country, with many more in the works. Who’s building them? Blue-collar trades workers.
That’s not all. AI is not another way of making the same widgets that we already have. If predictions hold, we are on the cusp of an entirely new era that will require new factories and manufacturing bases to produce the specialized hardware needed to run AI. In other words, we will need new businesses to support AI data centers. That’s a whole new sector of stable jobs for trades workers.
It also shouldn’t be assumed that AI is an automatic job killer wherever it’s implemented. It’s at least as likely that when one aspect of a job is made faster and more efficient by AI, the job itself will be more productive, as opposed to obsolete. This is modernization, not elimination, and it opens up a wide range of positive benefits.
One advantage is safety. As AI automates aspects of construction and manufacturing, job sites and factory floors will become safer. Already, data-driven improvements are identifying risks, providing predictive analytics, and sending real-time danger alerts to workers in an effort to minimize injuries. These and other advances will create safer environments that will attract new workers, including many underrepresented groups, like women.
Another advantage is compliance. There’s a saying in the trades that if it takes time, it costs money. However, the reverse is also true. As AI offers an increasing ability to spend less and less time on red tape and compliance paperwork, which has become astronomical in recent years, builders can move more quickly and pass on savings to businesses and homeowners.
It’s no wonder labor estimates show over 350,000 new construction-related workers are needed this year alone, and hundreds of thousands more are needed by the end of the decade. It also makes sense why companies like Home Depot and BlackRock are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to train plumbers, carpenters and electricians.
These are smart people making smart investments, knowing AI is here to stay. They also hit the nail on the head: affordable education and training for blue-collar workers is just as important for realizing the promises of AI as the transformative technology itself. That’s the future.
