Opinion
The battle for the workplace: From Amazon's robots to Nvidia's plumbers
Between Amazon's statements about replacing thousands of workers with robots and Nvidia's statements about the rise of plumbers and electricians, a new world of employment is emerging that will affect the lives of millions; Asaf Green, Director of Business Development at NTT Israel, explains what the job market will look like in the age of AI, and what companies and organizations need to do right now to prepare.
At Amazon’s warehouses in Ontario, hundreds of robots move back and forth in almost menacing silence. They pick up boxes, sort shipments, and gradually replace human workers, who are now redundant. Hundreds of miles away, at Nvidia’s headquarters in California, there is talk of a critical shortage of plumbers and electricians. Two completely different pictures, yet both tell the same story about the future of employment.
Over the next decade, we are facing a fundamental change in the world of employment - not only technologically, but also ethically.
On the one hand, reports based on internal documents and media coverage suggest that Amazon is moving toward gradually replacing thousands of employees through automation and robotics, as part of a broad streamlining initiative.
On the other hand, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that he actually recommends that young people become plumbers, electricians, or construction workers, since it will take tens of thousands of such employees to set up the data centers and computing facilities that power artificial intelligence.
Although they may seem contradictory, these approaches actually complement each other. Amazon shows that repetitive work that can be relatively easily automated—especially in logistics, warehouses, and supply chains—is becoming increasingly less dependent on the physical presence of human labor. The company already operates hundreds of thousands of robots performing tasks that, until recently, were considered impossible to automate. Meanwhile, Huang points out that the system enabling this automation—data centers, electrical infrastructure, cooling systems, and more—actually requires skilled manpower with technical understanding and expertise.
The implications for the job market are enormous. Workers in repetitive or easily automated roles will face declining demand. But blue-collar professionals such as plumbers, electricians, refrigeration technicians, maintenance personnel and construction workers, and not only them, but also for example network technicians, are expected to see a sharp increase in demand for their services.
Companies such as the Japanese conglomerate NTT have for years emphasized the combination of robotics, artificial intelligence and “human mediation”. They're developing systems where humans remain part of the cycle (“Human-in-the-loop”), running operations, providing oversight, training the AI, and correcting mistakes.
So how should we prepare for this shift? First, we should stop asking "Which jobs will disappear?" Instead, we should ask: "What new jobs will emerge?" Those who develop skills in technology, electromechanics, and infrastructure will find themselves in fields where demand will only grow. Educational systems should emphasize the integration of engineering with intelligent systems, not just “programming”. Simultaneously, governments should promote policies that keep people at the center—not as a threat, but as part of the solution.
The question is not only how to prepare technologically, but also how to prepare culturally. For decades we have become accustomed to measuring success by the number of degrees or C-suite positions. But in an era where servers (“artificial intelligence factories,” according to Nvidia's CEO) are the new steel mills, those who assemble cooling systems on server farms contribute just as much as those who develop the software that they power.
The real challenge lies not in the number of workers that will be replaced by machines, but rather in our ability to transition the workforce from outdated models to future-oriented ones, where robots handle tedious tasks while we focus on things that can't be automated: creativity, maintenance, broad analysis, and problem-solving. If we recognize that Amazon's and Huang's statements are not contradictory but complementary, we can build a future of employment where people don't compete with robots but rather collaborate with them side by side.
Asaf Green is the Director of Business Development at NTT Israel.
