Locksmithing/access control is an industry that is sorely lacking new people going into it and the only interaction I have with AI is from one coworker in marketing for the company who uses chatgpt to write her emails. I definitely don't make as much as my friends who are programmers though.
this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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Asklemmy
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Pest control. Pretty easy to get into, pays well, can't be done with AI. You have to have the stomach for it, and killing things sucks, and you have to be able to walk away from an incurable situation if the people won't change their ways.
I think op is tired of squashing bugs tho
AI will never be able to throw bricks at cops. Something to consider
Do you get dental?
The settlement money from the city after I get my eyes blown out by "less lethal" rounds tends to cover it.
No :( only vision to ensure good aim
I work in a warehouse, I come in at 7 and leave around 330. I put away freight, help the occasional customer, pick orders, ship out orders. AI can't do any of that in a small town. It still tries to get in where it can like customers wanting industrial automation products that have AI programming but that is way above my pay grade.
My previous job in a warehouse they were trying to do away with the manual routing of delivery routes by using an "AI" routing program but it was just an automated routing program they slapped the AI label on to charge more. It was just following rules not being actually intelligent.
forest ranger hehe
I'm in building maintenance. It's not affected at all by AI. Most of the trades are safe. Basically anything which would require both advanced LLM and advanced robotics to replace.
I did this 9 years ago. I make 2/3rds of what I did in software, but I don't regret it. pivoted to environmental work. My job satisfaction is like, a thousand percent better.
Can you say any more about the type of environmental work?
I started over doing entry level spray tech work treating exotic plants through americorps and worked my way up. I do a lot of field data collection and gis work now. So, I still utilize my old software skills. I work for my local government doing environmental land management.
GIS is definitely a software adjacent job that is utilized a lot in land management. But that isn't the initial route I took. I really did just kind of started over.
Thank you for sharing
Being a kindergarten teacher is not really something that AI can help with.
You're joking me right? I'm pretty sure this is actively happening. they're going to put the kids in little individual tubes with iPads
Not my experience, at least not here in Norway β in fact, there's been a pretty big backlash against the digitalization of childhood in schools and kindergartens, so I'd be very surprised if there's any increasing pressure on us to use computers at all with the children. A colleague of mine put on some movies a handful of times in December, and even that caused some concerned messages from parents.
at least not here in Norway
At least part of the world isn't racing to the bottom
Join us, become a tradie. Get a company vehicle. Work with your hands. Become enough of an expert in your trade that you can tell customers to go fuck themselves if they're dicks. Have every company in the area be desperate to hire you because every trade is short handed. Work with people who barely understand the concept of a computer. Spend half of every paycheck on milwalkee packout tool boxes. Never have to work with AI again.
My preference is HVAC-R but plumber or electrician are also good choices. Building automation may seem attractive but then you're getting close to the AI danger zone again.
And say goodbye to your knees!
Ironically, the three trades you listed are in high demand right now specifically because of the rapid rollout of the data centers needed to power AI.
A couple of thoughts on this as a union electrician: for starters AI is absolutely having an (arguably negative) impact on manpower fulfillment. In my area the massive expansion of data centers is causing a manpower shortage for all projects not funded by massive tech companies. This is complicated because it's inflating income for tradesmen due to demand, but it's also pressuring workers into ridiculous schedules (think 4x10s, 2x8s, and most Sundays) and is forcing contractors that aren't running data center work to completely rework their payment structure and bid practices. Many of these sites are also a 1-2 hour commute for a large number of tradies. A lot of these guys have been gaslit for decades into thinking working more OT somehow makes them a better person.
Beyond that, while I haven't personally seen it yet AI will absolutely begin worming its way into design; a process already riddled with issues and errors largely due to time constraints. Clients are going to want work done faster and cheaper, which will pressure design teams into using AI tools in the name of expediency, which will lead to more errors in the construction process, leading to inflated costs and likely problematic installations.
That's not even getting into the future of AI robotics which absolutely will be impacting our tradesmen directly in the near future.
It's coming for us too.
I'm not an electrician, but I have a relative that is. You nailed it. We've got a couple DCs going up near by, and he was asked to commit to a 2 year commitment for just one of them, working exactly the hours you said. He agreed because I think they are paying double time for all OT, and that's good money. They asked if he wanted to sign on for the other DC but he declined for the obvious time reasons. It's definitely had an effect on available workers for other projects since seemingly all hand are on deck.
I'm not familiar with the architecting process, but I can absolutely see how AI will be, if not already, involved with generating plans. It will shit something out faster than anyone could create it, but it will lose that value in review and the inevitable mistakes that make it through. AI is a cancer
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Anything that's based on physical work or human contact. Trades, medical/social work, psychology, emergency workers...
Psychology? A lot of folks are already using ai as a virtual therapist
That is the equivalent of saying "we don't need doctors since we can put bandaids on wounds"
Psychology is about a lot more that what LLMs can do
Doesn't mean psychology can't be ruined by AI anyway.
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I'm picking up furniture making. Handcrafted furniture will always be needed
What? Ikea wrecked that a long time ago. Not that you can't make a living but the demand isn't high in any way whatsoever. Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury.
The market for high quality furniture never went away. And if we enter a global depression, a local furniture maker will again be a necessity
If we enter a depression, people will have less money to spend on luxuries. I just think the percentage of people buying hand made furniture is kind of low. I think most people "buy" them from friends and family doing it as a semi-hobby, or are rich, at least in my experience.
Not trying to be overly critical, just saying it's not easy.
As a side note, I've noticed no one makes nice wooden informational kiosks with integrated touch screen even though orgs like museums would likely buy them over plastic and metal ones. Just an idea if you were looking for a niche product.
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Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury
So you make more money selling them. I see no issues.
No issues, just become a master craftsmen and compete with other master craftsmen. Easy.
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The issue is in finding buyers who have enough money to spend on those luxury goods.
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Plumbing is fairly safe from any kind of automation and also well paid.
They do use robots for pipe inspection and minor repairs, but that's about the extend of what the clankers will ever be able to do.
Anything that requires physical work. Manufacturing, trades, etc... But, there's the caveat that AI may still indirectly affect these too.
a career in poisoning AI
would be nice if i can make a living out of doing that lol
See if Haven Social are hiring?
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anything that is not digital/information driven. aka fields involving blue collar work.
[off topic?]
I recommend this book to anyone thinking about a career change.
"Discover What You Are Best At." Linda Gail. Six self tests you can finish in half a day, and a list of jobs that use those skills. Jobs range from zero new training to post college.
Really helped me when I was looking for career advice.
Thanks going to pirate it
I feel ya. But the pendulum will probably swing back the other way soon and weβll have a ton of companies hiring to undo/replace slop code. Thatβs how it has been for previous coding fads, anyway.
I'm so tired of my skill and income being beholden to the whims of bullshit artists though.
I think there will be a lot of openings for Revolutionaries. Whether you are a planner, cook, maintenance, driver, prefer to educate or provide healthcare, or if you fancy yourself a fighter, I'm sure there is a role for you!
We need a revolutionary party first to raise the funds to pay our professional revolutionaries lol.
toilet man
Wish I could tell ya. Im like just old enough that changing careers is rather monuental since I don't really have time enough to get established. Something has to eventually give with the ai. either it goes away which I doubt or we need to restructure our societies.
Horticulture is nice. You get most of the benefits of a trade and honest manual work (outside of union protections in most cases), but it's also a deeply interdisciplinary science that lets you impact the world in a lot of different ways while forcing you to touch and understand grass. With the same garden I get to do creative, intellectual, manual, and political work with really interesting spatiotemporal angles. There's public education and anthropology and ecological utility in choosing one plant over another based on analysing the site across all the physical sciences, then lifting heavy rocks to achieve something that benefits my neighbours and wildlife pets. Most of my coworkers are natural scientists of some kind so we spend all day in the sun having interesting conversations about the landscape and urbanism.
Also a software eng (for now), genuinely thinking of starting my own barbershop lmao.
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