AI does not destroy industrial jobs but creates “Smart Trade”, augmented technical professions. Faced with the shortage, it is urgent to revalorize these sectors to guarantee our sovereignty
We like to scare ourselves by highlighting the risk of job destruction due to the rise of AI and technologies, even if it means obscuring the prospects for developing new know-how. Yet it is a reality: each technical advance needs, to function, a physical infrastructure which requires hands, skills and innovations to be designed, built and operated.
Because behind each data center, each fiber network and each automated system, there are women and men who develop, connect, maintain and secure. The enthusiasm for AI should not make us forget the obvious: our digital ecosystems, just like the attractiveness of our country which results in the hosting of large infrastructures, are based on technical professions that are still insufficiently valued and in short supply.
A recent Randstad analysis reveals that the demand for climate engineering technicians – essential for cooling data centers – jumped by 57% in France between 2022 and 2025. The dynamic is similar for welders (+69%), maintenance technicians (+47%) or electricians (+41%). Finding these profiles now takes around forty days, double that of three years ago.
These experts intervene in the field, with know-how and actions that cannot be automated or dematerialized. Beyond digital, these operational skills constitute the beating heart of all our strategic industries. Whether it is to succeed in the energy transition, to deploy carbon-free infrastructure or to guarantee the sovereign autonomy of our national defense, technical mastery remains essential.
However, while these profiles are increasingly essential to the success of projects at the heart of our growth, reindustrialization and sovereignty strategy, we are facing a worrying structural tension. The industrial sector is struggling to generate vocations among younger generations, whileone million retirements are expected by 2030.
To reverse this trend, we must reinvent the image of these sectors. The days of exclusively manual tasks are a thing of the past; we are entering the era of “Smart Trade”. Predictive maintenance, simulation of complex production scenarios, optimization of flows in real time: thanks to AI and the advent of Industry 4.0, today’s technician is augmented in his functions by a set of digital tools.
However, securing industrial skills requires coordinated action from business leaders and public decision-makers. We must first treat the shortage of technical profiles as a major operational risk for our transformation projects, and not as a simple recruitment hazard. At the same time, faced with the profound change in these professions, it is crucial to highlight the growing integration of new technologies into their practice, while promoting the know-how and commitment of the women and men who practice them.
Finally, we must make these technical sectors paths of excellence. Raising awareness during school, access to continuing training and opening up to new profiles – women, people with disabilities, people undergoing retraining – are the keys to rebuilding our national pool and maintaining our production capacity.
Far from the scenario of a massive replacement of talents by AI, we are experiencing a “Great Adaptation” of know-how. France has a historic opportunity: to once again become a great industrial nation through the mastery of its cutting-edge skills, its networks and its infrastructures. But for this, we must understand that the true architects of the future are not only those who design the algorithms, but also those who build and maintain the physical ecosystem essential to their execution.
