The AI Robots Coming For Blue Collar Jobs

Forbes

01-05-2025

Robots have been used in manufacturing since the 1960s. What is new is the application of AI, which potentially gives robots much more powerful analytical, cognitive, and learning capabilities.
AI is already seen as a threat to many white-collar jobs, but soon, AI may play a part in replacing some blue-collar jobs. How soon will an AI robot show up at your house to fix your plumbing?
AI-enhanced robots are the next wave of AI on the technological horizon. Until now, AI has most often been associated with software, particularly computer-based chatbots that answer our questions. Agentic AI has also surfaced, in which AI applications—agents--make decisions and perform tasks with minimal human oversight.
But more recently, some companies have been working toward mating AI technology with hardware. In January 2025, Jensen Huang, CEO of nVidia, announced a new technological platform called Cosmos at the Consumer Electronics Show. This platform is meant to promote 'physical AI,' which means robots. In March, Huang said widespread use of humanoid robots is only a few years away. And a new Chinese training facility for humanoid robots will open in July 2025; it will share AI data and technologies among many robot developers.
Robots aren't new, of course; they've been used in manufacturing since the 1960s. What is new is the application of AI, which potentially gives robots much more powerful analytical, cognitive, and learning capabilities. Instead of simply following a script, AI-enabled robots will be able to access ever-growing data models to make decisions, act, and improve their capabilities, on the fly.
Those capabilities will contribute to the humanoid robots market growing to at least $38 billion by 2035, though some predict that market to be $60 billion. Citigroup predicts that 1.3 billion physical AI robots will be in operation by 2035.
However, 'humanoid' robots are ones that attempt to mimic human capabilities and perform tasks that humans can do, and more recent versions incorporate advanced AI capabilities. Many resemble humans, at least in shape and form. These robots run marathons and shoot film movies. Other humanoid robots include:
But I don't want a robot that I can pack into a suitcase; I want a robot that carries my suitcase for me (but for which I don't have to buy a seat on the plane). And drives me to work (assuming that I still have a job in the age of robots), cooks my dinner, does the dishes, washes my laundry, and walks my dog.
I want a robot that fixes my plumbing, my electricity, and my car. In short, I want a robot like Rosey the Robot from the Jetsons cartoon, but without all the lip. And I want just one robot to do everything, not 15 robots that work on different chores.
For some jobs, if a robot does a job half as well as a human can, that's an achievement, and acceptable. I am more than willing to tolerate having a kitchen that's half as clean as if I did the work myself, as long as I don't have to do it; if it really bothers me, I'll perform the rest of the cleaning. But other jobs require at least an on-par level of work; no one wants a half-as-good appendectomy.
But eventually, we should be able to expect that robots can perform at least some jobs better than humans, because they don't have human limitations. Robots are precise, and consistent; they don't perform a task one way and then a different way the next time, unless they've learned a better way to do things.
They don't get tired; they are never late. They can be trained and remember 100 percent of their training. They don't take shortcuts, and they aren't sloppy. They don't argue, or try to upsell you, unless their programmers build that in; they don't try to cheat you (unless their programmers build that in).
On the one hand, I love the idea or AI-enabled robots. But on the other, if robots take over the jobs that I now depend on people to perform, what do those people do for a living? The standard response is always, jobs will change, new jobs will emerge, and people will have to adapt. In the long term, that seems reasonable, but in the transition phase, many people are going to be out of work. And the truth is, nobody really knows what's going to happen.
In any case, it's probably inevitable. On Bill Gates's podcast, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said of AI in general, 'It's going to happen; this is now an unstoppable technological course. The value is too great.' Altman also said that AI was originally expected to impact blue-collar jobs first, white-collar jobs second, and creativity 'maybe never,' but that that order has been reversed. Nevertheless, blue-collar jobs will eventually be affected.
As of now, the blue-collar jobs that are most threatened are fixed-location ones—jobs in manufacturing or industrial locations. But eventually, with the advances being made by mobile, connected, humanoid robots with access to immense computing power, more jobs will be impacted.
The idea was that robots would take over jobs that humans don't want to do, or jobs that are simple, and that humans would migrate to new types of jobs—jobs that robots can't do. But it seems like the kinds of jobs that robots can't do is shrinking quickly.