'Jobs AI Cannot Replace': Anand Mahindra Weighs In On 'Skilled Trades Scarcity' Flagged By Ford CEO

Anand Mahindra, chairperson of Mahindra Group, said that blue collar labour may replace desk jobs as the new standard for prestigious and aspirational job types with the advent of artificial intelligence and automation.

Mahindra made a post on social media platform X on Monday, wondering out loud if society is about to witness a reset in what it calls a "dream career".

"For decades, we pushed degrees and desk jobs to the top of the “aspirational” ladder and quietly pushed skilled trades to the bottom," Mahindra said.

He noted that skilled blue colour labour is the type of work that AI cannot currently replace due to the requirements of human qualities like dexterity, judgement and more.

"Yet these are the jobs AI cannot replace: they require judgment, dexterity, apprenticeship, and real-world expertise," he added.

The Mahindra Group chairperson also said that this reality is already here and is not a projection for the future. He used the example of Ford's chief executive officer Jim Farley revealing on a podcast that the firm has 5,000 mechanic jobs paying $120,000 per annum lying vacant.

"Ford has 5,000 mechanic jobs unfilled, many paying $120,000 a year, and still no takers. Across the U.S., over a million essential roles in plumbing, electrical work, trucking and factory operations lie vacant," Mahindra said.

He said that if this trend goes on, the "biggest winners" of AI will be those who can "actually build, fix, and keep the world running."

Mahindra alluded to political thinker Karl Marx and his writings on worker's revolution stating that he may have not foreseen a reality where workers rise up due to value-discovery.

"Marx imagined workers rising through struggle. He never imagined they’d rise because they became too skilled, too scarce, and too essential to replace!" Mahindra said.