Will AI put heating engineers on the dole? – Opinion

AI is dominating the headlines, but what does it really mean for tradespeople? In his latest exclusive column, heating engineer Andy Gibbs shares his thoughts on how AI could affect installers.

AI is everywhere, apparently. Should you be worried about it? Well no, and yes.

Firstly you have absolutely no need to worry whatsoever because AI can never ever take your job.  An AI-inspired robot cannot climb in a loft, it cannot lift floorboards, and it most certainly cannot diagnose exactly what’s wrong with a boiler just by looking at it.

Oh and there’s no way it could possibly manage to swap a leaking PRV on a combi in a dark cupboard below the stairs. Impossible. No amount of intelligence created by a human can teach a machine to do that.

So really, don’t worry, AI won’t put you on the dole.

But, if you let it in, it could take over more of the, what I consider, business side of things. Stuff like answering the phone, booking your diary, all your accounts, paying your tax bill, ordering materials.

If you let it in that is.

And if you do, you’ll see, that while the advantages may seem good to begin with, it’s going to cause havoc, bring you nothing but pain, and you’ll rue the day you signed up to it in the first place. You won’t be able to get rid of it, because you let it in to your company, and now only it can run your books, because no human knows how to do it.

Would you trust it to do your accounts? Or would you still have to check them? If you don’t trust it, then its pointless really isn’t it?

I can assure you that if it files your accounts incorrectly, and the HMRC come for you, they won’t be accepting “well the AI did it for me” as an excuse!

By then though, it will absolutely be too late. All your customers will be long gone to a proper company with real people on the phone, and real lives. That’s what customers want.

How many times do you get pissed off when you’re ringing your car insurance company, and an AI voice starts off at you, and you have to keep telling it that please, all you want to do is speak to a real person. So if it annoys you, why would you inflict that upon your customers? Its actually madness.

Obviously there is absolutely no way any AI will ever be involved with my company.

I’ve done very well for 36 long years without it, and whatever people think it can bring to the party to “benefit my business” and ” take the stress away from you” it can’t. Its simply not possible.

Don’t believe the hype, it maybe here, and possibly here to stay, but there are very huge limitations, and don’t go giving it too many ideas above its station, you’ll regret it.

Artificial intelligence isn’t actually real, there’s a clue there in the name.