There has been worry of late that AI may eliminate jobs. I have seen the power of AI, and I can understand why some sectors are worried. I have even worried that this ongoing AI revolution may leave behind the troubled youth in my South Side of Chicago neighborhood. For the past several years, I have been building this massive Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center to teach young people the trades as a way out of poverty and violence. And I’m sitting here, wondering if I made a mistake. Have I created something that is outdated? I admit I felt this panic deep within my soul. Was I handing my youth a caveman tool when they needed the latest technology?
I wondered how we would adapt to this ever-changing world that changes so fast that sometimes I can’t even remember who was in the news last week. So I took a walk through the walls of the new building. It’s beautiful. It brings me such joy to see the rooms and the promises of opportunity that come with them. We have rooms for the trades in every aspect of construction, from wood cutting to plumbing. We have rooms for creating new electricians. We’ve also got rooms for creating HVAC workers and fiber technicians, and more. We’ve got amazing equipment for our youth to train on. But was all of this for nothing? Did time pass us by?
I did not create this building to leave another empty shell on the South Side of Chicago. Just down the street from us, Walgreens and McDonald’s fled, and there are boarded-up buildings. There are no grocery stores, and we’re a true food desert where fried foods are often our only quick and easy option. The rates of homeownership here are abysmal. Despite low home prices, some blocks have homeownership rates as low as 14% to 24%. We have a poverty rate of 40% to 51%, depending on which block you go to. And don’t even get me started on our local schools.
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That is why I am so desperate to bring a symbol of hope to my community through the building of this community center. I still felt that quiet desperation as I walked past the construction workers at work. I came upon a young man who had finished his job here. After thanking him for his contribution, I asked him where he was going next. He explained that he had secured work for a major AI manufacturing facility in a nearby township. As he told me more and more, I thought to myself: There’s a building boom.
When we think of AI, we think of the Silicon Valley story about white-collar workers. The media is full of headlines about white-collar workers afraid of losing their jobs. But at the same time, I was also noticing, in my layman’s view of the world, that AI could potentially be the wealth-of-knowledge generator that places practical expertise directly in the hands of young people failed by the current systems. In other words, AI could help my youth leapfrog gaps in local schooling and training by enabling self-sufficiency faster.
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I also began, thanks to my conversation with the young construction worker, to see that many people were missing the big opportunity here. While AI may transform or eliminate certain desk jobs, it is also a world unto itself that must be built. We’re talking about data centers, power grids, fiber networks and advanced manufacturing facilities.
Who is going to help build this revolution? I looked down from the roof of my community center at the young people on the sidewalks and prayed that it would be them and their peers.
This AI boom will require, for many years, electricians, HVAC technicians, construction workers, plumbers, pipefitters, fiber technicians and other skilled tradespeople. I recently drove out to see some of these facilities being built, and they’re massive. The world is changing before our eyes, and we’re entering an entirely new era of infrastructure.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called this the largest infrastructure buildout in human history. Major tech companies are projected to spend roughly $700 billion this year alone on AI-related facilities. This will only increase as more and more of us adopt AI. And it is happening as hundreds of data centers are under construction or planned across the United States. One analysis estimates the nation will need 130,000 to 140,000 additional skilled trades workers by 2030 just to support AI infrastructure—before accounting for housing, hospitals and energy projects competing for the same talent.
This demand has created an urgency to develop new workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects electrician employment to grow 9% from 2024 to 2034, a rate much higher than average. The bureau projects about 81,000 openings each year. HVAC mechanics and installers are projected to grow 8%, which translates to roughly 40,100 openings annually. Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters are expected to see about 44,000 openings per year.
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In May 2026, the construction industry reported approximately 298,000 job openings. Specialty-trade contractors already employ more than 565,000 electricians and 349,000 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters. The Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the industry needs roughly 349,000 net new workers in 2026 alone. In data-center hotspots, skilled-trades wages already carry a 7% premium overall, with plumbers and pipefitters seeing gains as high as 20%.
More importantly, the median annual pay for these jobs is solid, at around $62,000 to $72,000. This may not seem like a lot, but for a kid who has known nothing but generational poverty, this is the way out of the culture of dependency.
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Yes, one job like this can end that vicious, soul-sucking cycle that has kept so many of us stuck in the permanent Black underclass. These careers build assets, they restore dignity and pride, and they give people a stake in America.
At first, I feared that the AI revolution would leave my youth behind. But now I’m more convinced than ever that this is the greatest opportunity to come along.
I was part of the Great Migration myself, the very tail end of it. My mother and her husband moved from a tiny town in Tennessee to Muncie, Indiana, for better jobs in industrial factories. When I visited them and later moved to Indiana, I was exposed to a world of more opportunities.
I see this cycle of life coming back around today, and I’m determined more than ever to push my youth onto this AI opportunity wagon. As they say, this is their chance to strike it rich in America.
