Picture a warehouse where robots don’t just navigate aisles but can also communicate with workers in full sentences, thanks to advanced language models. On the factory floor, AI-driven computer vision spots and removes defective products with unmatched precision. In agriculture, robotic arms equipped with AI sensors delicately pick only the ripest fruit. These breakthroughs aren’t futuristic concepts — they’re transforming industries today.
While generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI dominate headlines for their impact on white-collar jobs, AI is quietly reshaping job roles, reskilling needs, and career pathways of deskless employees in the manufacturing, logistics, retail, agriculture, construction, and cleaning industries.
The growing use of AI-driven automation means HR leaders often have to change the way they recruit, train, and compensate deskless workers, who make up as much as 80% of the global workforce, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group.
These employees are increasingly being asked to operate or oversee AI-enabled tools, such as the following:
AI-driven robotics that use machine learning and GenAI for tasks including product assembly, pick-and-pack operations in warehouses, and quality control inspections.
Autonomous guided vehicles, including driverless vehicles used to transport goods through warehouses or factories. Self-driving tractors, trucks, and lawn maintenance robots are increasingly being deployed in the agriculture, landscaping, and mining industries.
Delivery and surveillance drones used to deliver packages, conduct security surveillance, inspect infrastructure such as pipelines, and monitor crops in vast farm fields for pests or other problems.
“Digital twins” that create virtual simulations of physical systems. This technology enables organizations to simulate scenarios that aren’t practical to create in physical form.
“Advancements in AI are transforming deskless job roles across industries by automating repetitive tasks and reshaping traditional workflows,” said Jamie Mackenzie, partner and HR and Talent Transformation Offering lead at IBM.
But as AI adoption accelerates, its effects on deskless jobs are not uniform. In some industries, automation is filling critical labor shortages, while in others, it raises concerns about job displacement. Understanding this evolving landscape is essential for HR leaders as they navigate workforce planning, reskilling initiatives, and the broader implications of AI-driven change.
The Uneven Impact of AI on Frontline Workers
The extent to which AI is replacing versus augmenting deskless jobs varies by industry, job role, and senior leadership’s philosophy about the use of AI in the enterprise. A 2023 study from research and advisory firm Forrester found that AI and automation will fully replace only 4.9% of U.S. jobs by 2030, as many organizations seek to employ AI to augment, rather than displace, workers. The Forrester report found that AI-driven automation has uneven impacts on the deskless workforce.
“In some cases, automation will stand in for jobs that have been hard to fill,” the Forrester study said. “For instance, physical robotics and automation are only beginning to fill the workforce gaps that have plagued frontline work in the 2020s. In other cases, workers lose jobs they need, creating deep social challenges like those faced in the postindustrial Rust Belt.”
A 2025 report by SHRM and Fidelity Investments shows that turnover among deskless workers is 1.6 times higher than for office-based employees, with the first year of employment being the most vulnerable period — especially in manufacturing. As AI continues to reshape these roles, organizations must act swiftly to retain talent by addressing not only technological disruption, but also worker concerns around compensation, scheduling, and career stability.
Recent studies highlight the accelerating impact of AI and automation on the deskless workforce. According to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025, 58% of employers expect robotics and automation to transform their businesses within the next five years. At the same time, 40% anticipate workforce reductions in areas where tasks can be fully automated.
As AI continues to reshape the workforce, its impact extends beyond job displacement or augmentation. For many deskless workers, the nature of their roles is evolving — from performing manual tasks to operating, monitoring, and collaborating with AI-driven tools. This shift is redefining job responsibilities, skill requirements, and career pathways across industries.
How AI Is Changing Deskless Jobs
Advancing AI is changing the nature of many blue-collar, hourly jobs from a historic focus on hands-on, repetitive labor to managing or monitoring robots, using computer-vision technology for quality control, and mastering a host of other AI-powered tools. Experts say this shift often requires deskless workers to acquire more critical thinking skills, software knowledge, and maintenance capabilities.
These growing skill demands intersect with key retention factors. The SHRM and Fidelity Investments report found that deskless workers who plan to stay in their roles cite job stability, good work/life balance, and satisfaction with their current schedules, relationship with colleagues, and good relationships with direct supervisors as top reasons — underscoring the importance of aligning AI-driven job evolution with human-centric support systems.
AI Is Creating New Career Pathways
Craig Le Clair, a vice president and principal analyst with Forrester and an expert in AI and automation, divides “physical automation” (often called robotics) into 10 categories, including industrial robotics, fulfillment robotics, and human-touch automation. Deskless employees in the manufacturing, logistics, and service industries fall into the physical automation category of “human-touch” workers.
While AI is creating new needs for deskless workers to reskill, it is also opening up new career paths for current employees in some industries, Le Clair said.
“In the security industry, for example, AI-driven monitoring and the management of drones can offer higher paying jobs for security personnel,” he said. “In janitorial work, the use of automation is making the job safer and cleaner in many respects.”
Robots may serve as assistants to janitors, not as replacements, and as a result, janitors could become “robot technicians” and potentially receive promotions and pay raises. They could also receive the benefit of having to do less strenuous work, Le Clair said.
The Rise of ‘Cobots’ in the Workplace
Collaborative robots, or “cobots,” that are designed to work alongside humans have become commonplace in manufacturing settings. One example are exoskeletons worn by employees to enhance their strength or extend their reach. Forrester’s research found cobots are trending positively due to cost declines, reduced injury rates, labor shortages, and the ability to support, rather than replace, workers.
“Deskless workers in many industries are working more collaboratively with robots than ever before,” Le Clair said.
AI-Powered Automation in Warehousing and Logistics
Another example of the expanding use of AI in deskless jobs is fulfillment robotics, which involves the movement of material in and around factories, warehouses, and distribution centers. This includes pick-and-pack operations and autonomous mobile robots that retrieve or consolidate inventory.
Robotics manufacturers also have begun to incorporate the kind of large language models (LLMs) that power chatbots into warehouse robots, boosting their agility, making them capable of handling unanticipated situations, and improving their ability to conduct predictive maintenance. Robots with embedded GenAI can also now respond to plain English commands from human co-workers.
AI’s Growing Role in Retail and Customer-Facing Roles
In the retail industry, AI is impacting deskless jobs through the growing use of tools such as expert virtual assistants and automated self-checkout stations. “The trend in retail for store-level associates isn’t necessarily about replacing them with AI but helping them work more efficiently,” said Bob Hetu, a vice president analyst for retail at Gartner.
For example, newly hired employees in a grocery store could access an expert virtual assistant on their phones to receive advice about how to perform a task in the produce or meat department. “The ability of new hires to tap into that internal knowledge through virtual assistants allows retailers to upskill those workers faster and more effectively,” Hetu explained.
AI-Driven Automation in Agriculture and Mining
Deskless workers in the agriculture and mining industries also are being impacted by AI-based automation, such as self-driving tractors and drones. Forrester found that in some cases, autonomous trucks used in iron ore mining can operate 700 hours more per year than conventional haul trucks and lower overall costs by 15%.
“Instead of having to drive a vehicle out into [a] 600-acre farm field, for example, an ag worker can now fly a drone and be able to identify things like a particular pattern on the leaves of crops,” Le Clair said. “These jobs are changing quite a bit as workers use different monitoring agents.”
Implications for Worker Reskilling, Job Growth
The Forrester study co-authored by Le Clair found the use of AI in deskless roles is causing job growth prospects, work patterns, skill requirements, and operating models to change. Many organizations have struggled to adapt to those changes.
“[M]ost companies don’t have the competencies to implement physical automation well,” the Forrester study said. “It’s not that they lack technology prowess; rather, it’s the people, leadership, and organizational structures that are holding back success.”
Deskless employees working with AI often are asked to assume more complex responsibilities that require problem solving and creativity, said Mackenzie of IBM Consulting. For example, in manufacturing, the rapid integration of collaborative robots into assembly lines has expanded worker responsibilities to include overseeing and managing AI-driven tools, requiring new skills in robotics maintenance and AI-system monitoring.
“As job responsibilities evolve, workers must develop technical skills to oversee AI technologies and troubleshoot issues, while also strengthening soft skills like critical thinking and decision-making,” Mackenzie said. “By enhancing those skill sets, workers also are positioning themselves for new career pathways and advancement opportunities.”
A warehouse worker reskilled in robotics maintenance could be promoted to an AI operations specialist, for example, or a retail worker reskilled in AI-based inventory forecasting could transition into a supply chain analyst role. “As AI adoption expands, technical expertise is becoming a key driver of career mobility and advancement,” Mackenzie said.
Developing skills to work with AI-driven technologies may require certificates or vocational training, experts said, but not necessarily a college degree. Le Clair said that innovative new training approaches from AI providers that customize learning to the education levels and languages of deskless workers may open up new career pathways.
“That new type of training can create more opportunities for lesser-educated workers to do jobs that in the past required a higher level of education or credentials to qualify for,” Le Clair said. “Some of these individuals will become AI operators and AI managers.”
AI’s Impact on Shift Scheduling, Frontline Managers
Deskless workers and their managers also are benefiting from the use of AI in shift scheduling and internal communications technologies. In the past, if hourly workers wanted to swap shifts with a co-worker, they had to ask a manager to manually juggle multiple schedules to make the change. Now, workers can access an AI-powered tool themselves to automatically swap shifts, a process that includes manager approval.
These AI-powered scheduling tools are not just about convenience — they can directly boost retention.
The SHRM and Fidelity Investments report found that among the most effective strategies for retaining deskless workers are practices such as:
- Offering predictable schedules.
- Flexible shifts.
- Employee input into schedules.
Yet many organizations underuse them. Automating and streamlining these processes could offer high-impact, low-cost solutions to turnover.
“AI applications in workforce management platforms can now factor in things like historical patterns of customer traffic, employee shift preferences, worker skill sets, and more to automatically create schedules for managers,” said Josh Bersin, an HR technology analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company.
Jackie Watrous, a senior director analyst in the HR technology practice at Gartner, said managers of deskless workers also are benefiting from advancing AI and new mobile applications. No longer do those time-starved managers have to log in to multiple HR technology platforms such as applicant tracking systems or naHRIS to perform HR-related duties, for example.
“With AI-powered systems, a recruiter can automatically nudge a hiring manager on a Microsoft Teams app, saying, ‘I have five job candidates ready for you to interview,’ and the manager can access and review those candidate profiles from anywhere on their phone,” Watrous said.
Cultural Acceptance and Governance Issues
Experts also said it’s important for HR to help demystify AI by openly communicating its potential impact on the jobs of deskless workers. Recent research shows employees have a growing fear about how AI will impact their jobs, which can harm their productivity, engagement levels, and job performance.
SHRM’s 2023 Workplace Automation Research found that 23% of U.S. workers are concerned that automation will replace their job in the next five years. Similarly, 90% of CHROs said they expect AI integration in the workplace to become more much more prevalent in 2025, according to SHRM’s new CHRO Priorities and Perspectives report.
At the same time, the SHRM and Fidelity Investments report revealed that deskless workers often feel overlooked by HR when it comes to understanding why they leave or stay. While 84% of HR professionals view deskless turnover as inevitable, only 36% of deskless workers consider their roles temporary. This gap in perception, combined with rising anxiety around automation, highlights the critical need for transparent communication, inclusive planning, and proactive engagement around AI-related changes.
“Being transparent with workers about AI eases the fear of job displacement, empowers workers to collaborate with AI, and fosters trust in new technology and ways of working,” Mackenzie said. “Organizations also must implement a strong AI governance framework and educate their deskless workforce about the ethical use of AI technologies.”
The Future of Deskless Work in an AI-Driven World
AI is no longer a distant concept for deskless workers — it is actively transforming their roles, skill requirements, and career trajectories. While automation is filling critical labor gaps in some industries, it is also raising concerns about job displacement in others. The extent to which AI replaces or enhances frontline jobs depends on industry needs, leadership strategies, and the adaptability of workers themselves.
For HR leaders, the challenge is twofold: ensuring that AI serves as a tool for augmentation rather than replacement, and equipping deskless employees with the skills necessary to thrive in this evolving landscape. Reskilling programs, AI-driven workforce management tools, and clear communication about AI’s role in the workplace will be essential in building a workforce that can adapt and grow alongside technological advancements.
By taking a proactive approach — investing in training, embracing AI-human collaboration, and fostering transparency — organizations can ensure that AI is a driver of opportunity rather than a source of uncertainty. The future of deskless work will be shaped not just by AI itself, but by how businesses choose to integrate and manage it.
Dave Zielinski is a Minneapolis-based business journalist who covers the impact of emerging technologies on the workplace.
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