Artificial intelligence is helping blue-collar workers do more with less, as labor shortages are expected to worsen

“There’s a lot of diagnostic time to figure out what’s going on, but now imagine you’re showing up on a site with the information,” said Alex Hawkinson, CEO of BrightAI, a company that uses AI solutions to address workers’ challenges in the energy sector and other labor industries, including: “So you’re sending someone to the right place when there’s an actual problem, and then they’re more likely to have the right part, or the right truck, or “The right materials he needs at that moment.” HVAC, water pipelines, construction, manufacturing, pest control, and field service.

It’s just one example of how AI-powered technologies are increasingly helping workers in blue-collar industries do their jobs, saving them time and energy, and reducing their exposure to risky situations (such as having to climb to the top of utility poles). The new wave of AI is also allowing workers in these fields to make greater use of the technologies they already use and the data they collect. The long-term impact of artificial intelligence on jobs is an increasingly important topic of discussion, with analysts and economists looking for evidence by examining hiring practices at different companies. But in many of these career fields that currently suffer from labor shortages, AI is a welcome adjunct.

Labor shortages are increasing workers’ appetite for automation

Blue-collar industries that require specialized business skills are among the most labor-stressed sectors of the workforce, especially as older workers who have been trained for years begin to retire. Between 30% and 50% Plumbing workers are expected to retire in the next decade, for example, and there are not enough younger workers entering the field to replace them. The situation is similar in agriculture: The average age of an American farmer is 58.1 years, and there are four times as many farmers 65 or older as those younger than 35, according to 2022 US Census of Agriculture. Agriculture also has to deal with the seasonality of its labor needs, which fluctuate significantly throughout the year.

“Another big misconception is that autonomy is about replacing labor,” said Willie Bell, CEO of John. Derry Its subsidiary, Blue River Technology, regarding artificial intelligence in the agricultural industry. “In many cases, this isn’t there to begin with. So it doesn’t replace anything, it gives them work.”

Whether it’s a utility worker checking a pole or a farmer harvesting crops, doing more in less time is crucial when there aren’t enough people to get the work done.

“One of the biggest things is that farmers don’t have enough time,” Bell said. “When we can give them their time, it makes their lives significantly better. They spend more time with their families. They get to spend more time managing the higher-leverage parts of their business, the higher-value parts of their business, and they experience less stress.” “There’s an incredible amount of anxiety that comes with not knowing if you can run your business because you’re relying on a dispersed, very fragile workforce to help you do it. Autonomy helps farmers solve that problem.”

Importantly, it is not only industry leaders who are involved in this area, but also workers. A He studies In a study on workers’ openness to automation, conducted by researchers at MIT (and supported by Amazon), they found that those without college degrees, or “blue collar” workers, are more open to automation than those with degrees. According to the study, 27.4% of workers without a college degree said they believe AI would be beneficial to their job security, compared to 23.7% of workers with a college degree.

AI augments the data and technologies that workers already rely on

For many blue-collar workers, the problems they face at work are becoming increasingly measurable. For example, Blue River’s technology has neural networks that integrate directly with field spray machines, detecting crops and weeds in order to spray herbicide only on weeds. Technologies like sensors and drones have been around for years, but recent advances in artificial intelligence allow them to derive more benefits from these technologies and the data they produce.

“A lot of factories and other industrial environments had data that had been around for a long time and didn’t necessarily know what to do with it,” said Ben Armstrong, co-author of the study on workers’ attitudes surrounding automation, and an MIT researcher who focuses on the relationship between technology and labor, especially in American manufacturing. “And now there are new algorithms and new software that allow these companies to be smarter about using that data to improve the job”.

BrightAI’s Hawkinson echoes this, saying that “a simple sensor reading is not enough to give you the pattern you care about” and that it is the maturity of AI that has made the difference. For example, the company used large language models (LLMs) for voice interaction to allow workers to interact with sensor data via wearable devices, which is critical for workers who need to be hands-free, as is common in the industries in which BrightAI operates. Hawkinson said companies that work with the BrightAI platform see a 20% to 30% increase in productivity within three to six months of being up and running.

Overall, many of the potential benefits hinge on using AI to improve organization and access to information vital to accomplishing these tasks. For example, Blue River Technology exploits LLMs to convert highly complex information about equipment fault codes into a more readable format with easy-to-understand troubleshooting tips.

“In a lot of the companies we study, there are company-specific tools that workers can use to solve problems in their jobs by either doing a different type of research or trying to organize information in a new way,” Bell said. “And I think for blue-collar workers who have a lot of knowledge about the specific processes and technologies they’re working on, it can be really exciting.”

Discover more stories from AIQ Wealth, A new series chronicles how companies on the front lines of the AI ​​revolution are dealing with the technology’s real-world impact.