CEO of home improvement giant Lowe Marvin Ellison has a stark warning for Americans about artificial intelligence (AI). CEO Marvin Ellison has sounded a wake-up call about his take on AI tools and billions and billions of investment in AI.
Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are alone projected to spend almost $700 billion combined on AI infrastructure in 2026. In what can be termed as a reality check, Ellison said that: AI can write your emails, but it can’t fix your roof.Lowe is one of the largest home improvement chains in the country, alongside Home Depot. As machine intelligence and AI threatens white-collar workers, Lowe said that it is doubling down on the backbone of the American economy.
The company is making a $250 million bet on a blue-collar future. “We’re a company that believes strongly in the future of AI, but in a world where administrative and analytical occupations are going to be increasingly dominated with the acceleration of AI, we think the skilled trades initiative is going to be even more important here in the near future,” Ellison told Fortune.“As powerful as AI will become, AI can’t climb a ladder to change the batteries in your smoke detector,” he continued.
“It can’t change your furnace filter; it can’t clean your dryer vent; it can’t repair a hole on your roof.”Lowe CEO said that the company will spend $250 million over the next 10 years to recruit and train 250,000 skilled tradespeople. The home improvement giant is hoping that through its investment, it will help to fill the void in the skilled trades workforce. This includes positions in plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, and more.
Lowe CEO is all for AI
At the same time Lowe CEO stressed that he is not against technology. He said that technology is helping Lowe’s staffers be more efficient. “We’re very focused on employing AI to help our associates sell, to improve the shopping environment for our customers, both in-store and online, and creating productivity in the workspace,” he had said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call earlier this year.“We’re very focused on employing AI to help our associates sell, to improve the shopping environment for our customers, both in-store and online, and creating productivity in the workspace,” he said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.Lowe’s corporate employees are reportedly using AI tools in other ways, Ellison said. The tools are freeing up merchandising teams to shift their focus from routine tasks to more strategic problems, and tech workers are using AI to develop and review code, achieving double-digit gains in productivity. “We’re excited about some of the work we’re doing in agentic commerce with some of the leading tech platforms out there as well,” he said.
