You Grew Up With Technology. The Trades Need You to Bring It.

This one's for the next generation.

If you grew up with a phone in your hand, you've probably heard some version of this: put it down and go learn a real skill.

Here's my take. Learn the real skill. And bring the phone with you.

Last time, I wrote about what AI is and isn't changing in the trades. The tools are here. Contractors are using them. But a tool is only as good as the person who knows how to run it, and a lot of the folks running shops right now didn't grow up with this stuff.

You did. That's not a small thing. That's an edge.

Why the Trades Need You

The trades have always been built on people who show up and figure it out. That hasn't changed. What's changed is the toolbox.

Today's shop runs on scheduling software, connected equipment, online reviews, video, and now AI. The owner who's been turning wrenches for decades knows the work cold. What they might not know is how to make an AI tool actually useful, how to cut a thirty-second video that books jobs, or how to read a dashboard and spot a problem before it costs money.

You can help with that. And while you do, you'll learn the things no app can teach you.

That's the trade. Their experience for your fluency. Both sides win.

Where to Focus

If I were starting out today, here's where I'd put my energy.

1. The front door: customer communication. Every job starts with a call, a text, or a form. Learn how AI tools can help a shop answer faster, follow up on time, and write clear messages. Then learn when to put the tool down and just talk to the person. Knowing the difference is the skill.

2. The field: tech-assisted diagnostics. Equipment is smarter than it used to be. Thermostats talk. Systems throw codes. Tablets carry manuals, photos, and job history. The techs who can read the data and still trust their own eyes and hands are going to be in demand.

3. The numbers: reading the business. Learn job costing. Learn what a margin is. Get comfortable with spreadsheets and dashboards. Most owners I've worked with got buried by the business, not the craft. The person who helps them see their numbers clearly becomes hard to replace.

4. The story: marketing and content. You already know how to shoot and edit on a phone. A clean before-and-after. A quick tip from the job site. A happy homeowner, with their permission. Small shops need this badly, and most don't have the time to do it.

5. The memory: capturing what the veterans know. This one matters most to me. Every shop has a senior tech carrying decades of know-how in their head. When they retire, it walks out the door with them. Pair up with that person. Film the fixes. Turn their tricks into checklists and how-to videos the next hire can use. In Failing to Fail, I call this encoding: getting the lesson out of one person's head and into a system the whole team can run. You can be the one who makes that happen.

A Word of Caution

Tech is a tool. It's not the trade.

Learn the craft first. Get dirty. Make your mistakes on the small jobs so you don't make them on the big ones. The best techs of the next twenty years will be the ones who can do both: fix it with their hands and run it with their head.

To the Owners Reading This

Give these young people a seat at the table. Don't just hand them the broom. Hand them the problem nobody has time for. The unanswered phones. The reviews nobody replies to. The know-how that leaves when your senior tech retires.

You might be surprised what they do with it.

The Bottom Line

AI isn't shrinking the trades. It's raising the bar for the people in them. The trades need people who can use these tools well and still show up for the customer standing in the kitchen.

If that's you, we need you. Bring the phone. Pick up the wrench. Let's build something.

I'm not a politician. I'm not in the military. But as a plumber, I protect your world. Without me, your world smells a whole lot different.

TimmyBoy Founder, Advancing the Trades | Author, Failing to Fail