Nvidia CEO expects AI to create more jobs for construction workers, electricians, plumbers, and many others

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But human-AI collaboration will likely lift certain industries to new levels.

Nvidia GTC Spring 2023 keynote with Jensen Huang
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Artificial intelligence is expected to reshape the labor market by eliminating white-collar positions that do not require a lot of creativity or experience, but at the same time increase demand for blue-collar employees like construction workers, electricians, or plumbers, as AI infrastructure requires a massive built-out, according to Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia. That build-out spans many industries, so while some roles will vanish, others will flourish, reports Bloomberg.

"This is the largest infrastructure buildout in human history that is going to create a lot of jobs," Huang said in a conversation with Laurence D. Fink, the head of BlackRock, at the World Economic Forum 2026. "We are going to have plumbers, electricians, construction and steel workers, network technicians, and people who install and fit out the equipment. In the United States we are seeing quite a significant boom in [these areas]: salaries have gone up, nearly doubled. We are talking about six-figure salaries for people who are building uh chip factories or computer factories or AI factories. We have a great shortage in that."

"Ten years ago, one of the first professions that everybody thought was going to get wiped out was radiology," Huang noted. "The reason for that was that the first thing AI [gpy] superhuman in capability was computer vision, and one of the largest applications of computer vision is studying scans by radiologists. Well, 10 years later, it is true that AI has now completely permeated and diffused into every aspect of radiology. It is true that radiologists use AI to study scans. […] However, […] the number of radiologists have gone up. Is that because a lack of trust of or is that because the human interaction with the results of AI is a better outcome? […] The fact that they are able to study scans now infinitely fast allows them to spend more time with patients diagnosing their disease, interacting with the patients, interacting with other clinicians. […] As a result of that, the number of patients that the hospital can see has gone up, [driving revenues of hospitals]."

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    At the same time, Nvidia is pumping large amounts of resources into robotics. Construction workers are definitely at risk of losing their job to robots. It's already starting to happen.

    Maybe someday, even electricians and plumbers!
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    bit_user said:
    At the same time, Nvidia is pumping large amounts of resources into robotics. Construction workers are definitely at risk of losing their job to robots. It's already starting to happen.

    Maybe someday, even electricians and plumbers!
    Depends on how they go with it in the long term.

    I can see what he's hoping to happen come to fruition if robotics are used to enhance workers and not replace. Warehouses is replacing, yes, but construction work, I'm sure humans are too flexible still vs a more controlled environment like a warehouse, so enhancing workers makes more sense to me than flat out replacing. Enhancing heavy machinery and such is the right play, at least for now, given computing at the current level.

    Other more specialised proffessions, it'll depend, since I doubt robots can also fully replace a human in the next 20 years. Not when current models still guarantee erroneous results at any given time. Some lines of work must have "near zero" error rate.

    Automation is going to grow for sure though. Super-specialised factories are proof of that, and they don't rely on "AI". At least, not yet on a massive scale.

    So, work where the human still needs to be highly adaptable, then robots won't be replacing them any time soon, but I think that has been the conclusion from a long time now, right?

    EDIT: I forgot to add that it'll also come down to price. When you lower a barrier of entry to any job or activity, it's reasonable to expect an uptick in employment. That may also imply lower cost per human (payment) working there to offset some of the "machinery" costs? Hard to predict that too accurately, but overall: lower the complete cost of construction -> more construction -> more positions to fill. At least, under that angle, it can come to pass, but also another requirement. Will it come to pass? Not sure... Most of the "robotics" will be tied to subscriptions, so they're bound to be exploitative, so I'm not too optimistic on that front.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • voyteck
    Robots won't replace humans unless they are cheaper in a long term. And they will need maintaining, and won't last for decades, probably.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    voyteck said:
    Robots won't replace humans unless they are cheaper in a long term.
    Productivity (i.e. the ratio of work output per cost) is what needs to be higher.

    voyteck said:
    And they will need maintaining, and won't last for decades, probably.
    Cost needs to include ongoing maintenance, as well as the purchase price. For smaller firms, I expect the robots will tend to be leased, as I think is common with lots of heavy construction equipment.

    One advantage of robots is they can work more hours/day. You also don't need to provide them with health insurance or pension plans.
    Reply