AI Isn't Replacing These Workers. It's Creating a Massive Need for Them.

PART 2 OF 3: The $100 billion project coming to a town of roughly 25,000 people should wake everybody up

September 05, 2026

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Everyone wants to talk about what AI is going to eliminate. I'm becoming obsessed with what AI is going to CREATE.

Not software jobs.

Trade jobs. Lots of them.

And they're not all going to Silicon Valley.

One of the most interesting workforce stories in America right now is happening in western Kentucky. Paducah.

This isn't Nashville, Atlanta or some booming Sun Belt city. Paducah has roughly 25,000 residents. Yet the federal government recently announced a partnership to redevelop portions of the former Department of Energy site there into an enormous AI data-center and energy campus.

The announced private investment is more than $100 BILLION. Around 8,000 construction workers are expected to be needed, with approximately 600 permanent employees eventually.

When I saw those numbers, my first thought wasn't, "What AI company is going there?"

My first thought was:

WHO THE HECK IS GOING TO BUILD ALL OF THIS?

That's the opportunity nobody is talking about.

Imagine dropping thousands of construction jobs into a region that doesn't already have an unlimited supply of electricians, HVAC technicians, pipefitters, welders and industrial maintenance workers sitting around waiting for work.

You can't magically produce 2,000 electricians. You have to train them.

You can't download a pipefitter. You can't DoorDash an industrial maintenance technician. You need an actual human being who has been trained, and training requires infrastructure.

That's why when I hear about another $10 billion data center announcement, I don't just see servers. I see trade schools.

Paducah isn't alone.

Drive east across Kentucky and there's another interesting example. Near Ashland in Boyd County, a company has proposed a 1-gigawatt data center on a former industrial site, with the first phase targeted for 2028.

Think about the irony. Parts of eastern Kentucky spent decades watching coal, steel and heavy industry decline. Now some of those same communities could become infrastructure hubs for AI.

The industries change.

The need for skilled workers doesn't.

And this isn't just Kentucky.

Look at the Gulf Coast.

The Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast may be one of the most interesting skilled-trades markets in America over the next decade. Not because it's trendy, but because America keeps building really expensive things there.

LNG facilities. Petrochemical plants. Shipyards. Marine infrastructure. Energy facilities. Industrial projects.

All of those facilities need welders, pipefitters, electricians, instrumentation technicians, millwrights and industrial maintenance technicians. And they don't need a few of them.

They need A LOT of them.

One major LNG project in southwest Louisiana alone expects its construction workforce to reach around 5,000 people at peak.

Then go east to Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Ingalls Shipbuilding employs more than 11,000 people and builds ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. Shipbuilding isn't slowing down because America suddenly decided it doesn't need ships anymore.

The workforce is the constraint.

In Gulfport, Bollinger Shipyards recently opened a workforce training center specifically for structural welding, electrical and pipefitting.

Companies don't build training centers for fun.

They build them because they need workers.

We're defining the "trade school market" wrong.

Most people looking to open a school ask me some version of:

"How many people live in this city?"

That's not the first question I'd ask anymore.

I'd ask:

How much money is about to be spent within 50 miles of this city?

Show me announced factories, data centers, shipbuilding contracts, LNG terminals, power-generation projects, transmission infrastructure and industrial expansions.

Then show me the existing training capacity.

THAT gap is interesting.

I'd rather investigate a town of 30,000 people with $20 billion of industrial investment coming than another major city with 15 established trade schools fighting over the same students.

Follow the cranes.

I've said this before, but I believe it more every year.

If you want to know where skilled-trade opportunities are going, follow the cranes. Then follow the power. Then follow the factories. Then ask who is training the workers.

That's where things get interesting.

America's next great workforce shortage isn't going to happen evenly across the country. It's going to happen in pockets.

One enormous project gets announced outside a sleepy town. Suddenly every electrical contractor within 100 miles needs workers. Then the subcontractors arrive. Housing gets built. Warehouses appear. Service companies expand. More HVAC technicians are needed. More electricians. More diesel technicians. More equipment mechanics.

One project can create an entire ecosystem.

AI isn't just software.

People imagine AI as software. I increasingly think about AI as infrastructure.

Servers consume electricity. Electricity requires generation. Generation requires equipment. Equipment requires technicians.

Data centers produce enormous amounts of heat. That requires cooling. Cooling requires HVAC and mechanical expertise.

Facilities need backup power, generators, substations, transmission, fiber, fire suppression, building automation and controls. And all of it eventually needs maintenance.

The digital economy is sitting on top of an enormous PHYSICAL economy.

And that physical economy needs people.

Which brings us right back to the 1990s.

For decades we told young people the future was knowledge work. Go to college. Work in an office. Get away from manual labor.

Now we're building one of the most technologically advanced economies in human history and discovering something pretty funny.

The future still needs plenty of skilled tradesmen.

The jobs didn't disappear.

Our pipeline did.

That's why I believe we're entering a golden era for workforce training. But I wouldn't open just ANY trade school, and I definitely wouldn't automatically put it in a huge city.

I'd go where billions of dollars are arriving before the training infrastructure catches up.

In Part 3, I'll tell you exactly where I'd be looking, which trades I'd teach and what I would build if I were starting from ZERO today.

Until next time, control what YOU can control, take action on something, and don’t forget to smile. Like what you read? Here’s how you can help: 

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