The conversation about the future of work is taking an unexpected turn conditioned by the progressive incursion of AI into administrative positions, especially among younger people who see the old promise of a prosperous work future after university.
Influential voices in the development of AI, such as Mark Zuckerberg or Mark Chen, are revealing the devaluation of the value of university degrees. Jensen Huang has gone a step further by pointing out that most future economic opportunities could arise from traditional professions rather than pure university careers. “The millionaires of the future will be electricians or plumbers,” said the millionaire in an interview for the British Channel 4 News.
The winners of the race for AI. Jensen Huang, CEO of the main producer of AI chips, pointed out the significant imbalance in the current labor market, in which there is a huge supply of university graduates, but a large deficit of qualified labor in traditional trades such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers or bricklayers. According to this shortage, their jobs are much better valued and salaries could double in a short time. “The big winners in the AI race will be electricians and plumbers,” said the NVIDIA CEO.
Huang highlighted that, although these professions were not directly related to the development of AI models, they were related to the construction and maintenance of the data centers that support these technologies. “Whether you are an electrician, plumber or carpenter, we will need hundreds of thousands of them to build all these factories and the specialized crafts sector of all economies is going to experience a boom,” the manager stressed.
Traditional jobs versus AI. One of the great advantages of traditional trades over many so-called “white collar” jobs is their limited exposure to AI automation. Furthermore, in other interventions, Huang has pointed out: “As we speak, AI has no chance of doing what we do,” stated the NVIDIA CEO during a conference in Mumbai.
To a greater or lesser degree, all positions with administrative burden or repetitive routines are susceptible to automation of all or part of their work. It is something that is already beginning to be observed with a reduction in junior positions in the main consulting firms, where AI is replacing recent graduates in basic tasks such as reporting or programming assistance. On the other hand, jobs in the manufacturing industry or traditional trades are not feeling the same pressure because, at the moment, an AI cannot fix faults in the electrical installation of a house.
AI can’t build your house. Beyond the fact that you can currently have a waiting list of more than six months to request an estimate for a bathroom or kitchen renovation, NVIDIA’s concern about the lack of qualified labor is more related to the deadlines in the construction of its data centers.
According to a McKinsey report, the industry is projected to see global capital spending on data centers reach $7 trillion by 2030. That’s a lot of processors waiting to be sold. The problem is that, as with renovating your bathroom, without sufficient labor, construction times take longer than expected.
Just as I collected FortuneLarry Flink, CEO of BlackRock, was also concerned in that regard, noting that the workforce to build the data centers they needed had been dangerously reduced following Trump’s anti-immigration policies. “I have even told members of Trump’s team that we are going to run out of electricians, which we need to build AI data centers. We simply don’t have enough,” the manager declared at a recent conference.
In Spain they also bet on traditional professions. In Spain, the media millionaire José Elías, CEO of the La Sirena supermarket chain and president of Audax Renovables, has been giving a clear and forceful message for some time: “Artificial intelligence is going to take over 80% of office work,” and that is going to change everything. But not for manual trades. On the contrary, those practical and physical jobs, which many today despise, will be the ones that will have the most opportunities and the best salary “they will end up earning 50, 60 or 200 euros per hour,” the Catalan millionaire highlighted in an interview.
In addition, he points out that these jobs offer greater growth prospects and professional stability. “A lawyer from a large firm who works long hours does not earn more than an electrician. Or someone from a Big Four audit who works 17 hours a day does not live better than an electrician either,” he explains. “An electrician works nine hours and one is having breakfast. I don’t know any electrician who doesn’t have an apartment and if you’re good and don’t get paid well, raise your hand and tell the boss ‘Hey, I’m thinking about starting to send resumes,'” explains José Elías in one of his videos.
In WorldOfSoftware | Overqualification in Spain becomes chronic: 34% of workers perform tasks below their educational level
Image | José Elías, NVIDIA
