Half of heavy industrial workers use AI, but workplace training is lacking

Construction, manufacturing, and heavy industry might not be the first jobs that come to mind when thinking of AI, but a new report suggests blue-collar workers aren’t outliers when it comes to using the technology at work.

“In heavy industry, adoption is being driven by workers.”
Sam Jenkins, Punchcard

A new study from Edmonton’s Punchcard Systems shows the ways AI is changing day-to-day work for employees in Canada. One of its key findings shows that nearly half of people employed in heavy industrial work are now using AI. The report also finds that while AI use is increasingly common, formal training from employers is lacking.

“In heavy industry, adoption is being driven by workers using a chatbot or general-purpose AI tools on their own, well before most companies have implemented formal AI tools and guidelines on how to use them throughout the business,” Sam Jenkins, the co-founder and managing partner of Punchcard Systems, told BetaKit in an email.

Partnering with Angus Reid, Punchcard’s report surveyed 1,100 workers across fields like manufacturing, construction, natural resources, energy, automotive, and agriculture.

Findings show that more than half of Canadian workers now use AI day-to-day. Among blue-collar workers in heavy industry, that number shrinks slightly to 49 percent. Jenkins said Punchcard’s report found that the bulk of that adoption is coming from the bottom up, with workers deploying the tech themselves rather than at the behest of an employer.

The report also found that among industrial workers, employees primarily trust AI for tasks like completing paperwork, interpreting technical documents, or accessing how-to information, but stop short of trusting it with decisions impacting worker safety.

While workers in the trades and heavy industry may be starting to join the AI revolution, their employers have not yet taken the plunge. Punchcard’s report found that formal AI training lags behind worker use by a significant margin. While 49 percent of workers use AI, 70 percent of them have reported receiving no formal training. In construction, that number jumps to 87 percent.

Jenkins doesn’t think that divide is due to negligence, but rather that heavy industry hasn’t quite decided how it wants to integrate AI into its workflow. Once it does, Punchcard says, it should be workers who help craft what those integrations look like.

BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by ILLIYEEN.