3 Benefits of AI for Skilled Tradespeople

If there was a “Buzzword of Facilities” award for 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) probably receives strong consideration. 

AI dominates many conversations among institutional and commercial institution facility managers, who wonder how their department can utilize it to more effectively do their jobs to wondering how AI will someday take their jobs away. 

Kyle Spencer, the director of NFPA LiNK at NFPA, is here to reassure those who are skeptical of the technology. He offers three reasons why AI will become a core competency in skilled trades and in many instances save the industry. And in an industry where skilled tradespeople are needed now more than ever, his words certainly should be considered reassuring. 

Here’s why:  

• “While AI is already handling routine, repetitive tasks across the skilled trades industry today, an even bigger shift is on the horizon by 2026,” Spencer says. “While this emerging technology can never replace the physical craft tradespeople have mastered, we’re moving toward an era where AI can assist with early risk assessments, basic consulting, and other prep work that often eats up valuable time by removing hours of searching, sorting, and background research. With these tools coming into play, tradespeople will be able to focus on the complex, hands-on tasks that truly require their expertise.”  
• “Even though the industry is excited for this shift, field professionals can’t abandon their expertise. Those who leverage the next wave of AI tools will still need to use their own judgement to validate and improve whatever bots provide. That expert decision-making is, and always will be, essential. Still, ignoring these tools would be a mistake.”    
• “The simple truth is that AI isn’t going to take skilled trades positions, it’s someone who knows how to use AI who will take your job. Now is the time for skilled trade workers to start adopting AI, not as a replacement for their craft, but as a tool that helps them do more and stay competitive.” 

Dave Lubach is chief editor of the facilities market. He has a decade’s worth of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues. 

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