Lowe’s CEO has a tough message for young workers | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Corporate America is drastically changing at a rapid pace.

After the Covid pandemic came to an end, remote work began suddenly disappearing from company cultures across the country, as more CEOs mandate employees to return to working in the office five days a week.

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Also, diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which were developed to advance workplace opportunities for people of various backgrounds, are fading away from workplaces nationwide amid pressure from consumers and after President Donald Trump said the policies cause “illegal and immoral discrimination.”

In addition, artificial intelligence is growing rapidly and creeping into U.S. workplaces, which is worrying Americans. A survey from YouGov last year found that more than one-third of U.S. workers are worried that AI will result in job loss or fewer work hours.

An employee secures the lid of a Valspar Corp. paint can for a customer inside a Lowe’s Cos. store in Burbank, California, U.S., on Friday, May 19, 2017.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Lowe’s CEO has blunt advice for young workers

Amid this AI boom, Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said during Business Roundtable’s CEO Workforce Forum in Washington, D.C., on June 17 that while AI threatens to take over corporate jobs, it can’t complete front-line work.

“AI isn’t going to fix a hole in your roof,” said Ellison. “It’s not going to respond to an electrical issue in your home. It’s not going to stop your water heater from leaking.”

He also said that young workers should seek these blue-collar jobs to maintain employment stability as AI expands.

“When young people come to me and they desire to work in the corporate office, my advice to them is: stay as close to the cash register as you can,” said Ellison. “Stay close to the customers, because you will always have employment opportunities to grow.”

Ellison also promoted Lowe’s (LOW) education benefit program, which offers its employees tuition-free education for select degrees, boot camps, certificates, etc., allowing them to move on to jobs outside of Lowe’s.

“It could be a general contractor, could be a builder, and we’re perfectly OK with that,” said Ellison. “It fills the need that is much greater.”

Lowe’s CEO’s comments mirror a startling workplace trend

Ellison’s comments come after companies such as Amazon, IBM, Chipotle, JPMorgan Chase, and even the IRS have welcomed AI into their workplaces with open arms.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy even said in a memo to employees on June 17 that AI will replace some of the company’s corporate jobs as it will “automate a lot of tasks that consume our time.”

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“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” said Jassy. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

AI use in U.S. workplaces has almost doubled over the past two years, according to a new Gallup survey.

The survey found that 41% of employees use AI to generate ideas, 39% use it to consolidate information, and 39% use the technology to automate basic tasks.

It also discovered that 27% of white-collar U.S. workers use AI regularly, compared to the 9% of blue-collar workers who use it often.

While AI has grown in popularity in workplaces across the country, it still has more ground to cover. About 7 in 10 employees in the survey said they never use AI, while 1 in 10 say they use it at least weekly.