I’m an electrical engineer and I deal mostly with medical equipment. Not even this field is safe. People are going to die.
this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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Architecture is the other one that worries me. I don't like the idea of unknowingly walking around in a building that was designed by AI. I work with AI and it can't even be trusted to write a blog post correctly, let alone design a building that's safe. And I know if I'm thinking of that now, it means someone else has already thought of and attempted it at least 6 months ago.
I work in a datacenter. I rack servers, I look after the cooling system, the generators, the ups's, etc. I won't ever be replaced by AI. Without me there is no AI. And I barely interact with it. I play with toys all day.
The environmental impacts still bother me. But IT has always been wasteful, even before AI. I hate recycling days when I see exactly how much plastics, styrofoam and metals are going to the dump.
Previously the equation was trying to get as much processing out of every kilowatt-hour, now the equation is trying to use as much energy as possible. The impact of AI eclipses IT loads from before by a massive margin, and because of the theory behind it will never, ever do any better than it is right now. The environmental impact should bother you because it's massive and getting bigger.
And you're helping set it up and keep it going. I know what it's like to run a datacenter, I did it for a decade and a half. I'm not going to say I'm making more money now, but I do sleep much better.
My datacenter doesn't host AI. Most of my servers process data coming from the square kilometer array in Australia. We're looking for aliens
Problem is, cost of living is so extremely high where I live and I don't know what else I would do to make enough money to stay here. I'm really good at this job, and I don't have very many other talents
It could be a lot worse too. Our cooling system is a closed loop so we aren't using fuck tons of water like newer datacenters. In the winter we can mostly get away with air cooling from outside air. And the power in my city is all from hydro dams
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Plumber
Also pays very well
A different kind of slop..I'd prefer it
I’m a tax lawyer. I’m gonna be very busy fixing the messes people make using AI-assisted do-it-yourself tax planning lol. And by fixing I mean telling them to beg for penalties to be forgiven lol
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.
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.
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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.
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"AI can't replace you but an AI salesman can convince your boss to replace you will AI."
Idk maybe I’m wrong, but this feels like more of a hiring issue than AI. You should still be hiring good engineers, and you shouldn’t incentivize them to go so fast that they have to vibe code everything. Let good engineers use AI if they want, and not use it if they don’t want to. If their code is bad, it’s their fault, not the tools they are using.
I was going to say my industry, sewer and water but now they're forcing cameras with AI in them into our with vehicle to "save on insurance." More like spy on us and figure out why we're messing around with one fire hydrant so long.
I hate it here.
I'm a local truck driver for a smallish local trucking company. My company installed new dash cams with both internal and external cameras. Every truck I know has at the internal camera at least covered in tape, if not removed completely (Mine is gone completely). If my company required the internal cameras, at least half the fleet would likely quit and it would be catastrophic for the company.
One of the perks of the job is being alone and just chilling out most of the day. You don't get to watch me.
I find it unreal that this is legal. This is why we need unions.
I have coals in the fire for unionizing my industry. Waiting until later this year where I have a better financial situation as a backup plan in case I need to do it unemployed.
But when I'm done, my friends and co-workers will be unionized.
Good luck!
I’ve grown up in a country where unions are as natural as air. The unions are so strong that there basically is very limited employment laws - and no minimum wage; there’s just not need for the state to intervene that much because unions are EVERYWHERE. And yes, a Big Mac meal costs a fortune because employees actually have to make a living. I’m ok with it.
Funny enough, our entire industry is unionized except for our sector. From the producers to the plants, everyone is protected except for what we do. It shouldn't be difficult to get us unionized but it's still a rather uphill battle. And talking to some of my co-workers, everyone is willing but I'm the only one taking the lead on it.
Yeah I'm moving across the country soon so it won't be my problem but 3/4 of the people who work there are already looking for jobs because of other micromanaging shit that's started happening. We're the highest producing, lowest issue location and all of a sudden they're treating us like toddlers. Everyone is pissed.
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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.
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Anything that's based on physical work or human contact. Trades, medical/social work, psychology, emergency workers...
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Anything that requires physical work. Manufacturing, trades, etc... But, there's the caveat that AI may still indirectly affect these too.
Prostitution.
I am not saying it's the ideal career choice for most people, however it isn't something ruined by AI...
And there are opportunities to progress into a madam or pimp. Plus you get a funky hat with a feather, I'm unsure how this process goes though (I would imagine there must be some sort of application process for the hat).
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I'm a lathe operator. No AI there yet. And my lathe runs Linux too...
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CAD specialist.
It's gonna be a while, but I don't expect it to be completely safe.
My backup is construction management which I am also very much qualified to do. I very much doubt that's in any danger in the near future.
If both of those get completely taken over by AI, I'll revert to being a carpenter. Not ideal, but if that gets taken over by AI, we're at the point where workers have become entirely obsolete, at which point either universal basic income is a thing, or it's time for a violent uprising against our AI overlords.
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Engineer
Rocket scientist
Electrician
Plumber
Mechanic
Structural engineer
Surveyor
Anyone with a professional job that requires a degree, or even the most basic level of technical knowledge know that an LLM cannot replace their job by "putting words in enough of an order to sound like a person" or "drawing a picture that looks like something"
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.
Airline mechanic. AI is not going anywhere near us and if it does it will be trained on absolute garbage and be wrong 100% of the time.
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I’m there too. But not because AI. I just reviewed a PR by a newb. Code was fine. I could reason about what they did. It worked correctly. Then I read the other devs comments and what they requested done and now code that worked correctly and was easy to reason about is buried in abstraction that isn’t really needed but it “makes the code much better”. No it doesn’t.
That’s what I’m sick of. If I’m reading code and the logic that actually does something is buried that irritates me.
Some abstraction is great. Otherwise we would program with physical switches. But abstraction just because you think it makes the code look better is shit.
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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.
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.
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I feel ya. But the pendulum will probably swing back the other way soon and we’ll have a ton of companies hiring to undo/replace slop code. That’s 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.
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