Blue Collar AI

Using AI on a real manufacturing floor. What works, what's hype, and what it means for blue-collar jobs. Building BetaWave AI (

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

I run field ops at a manufacturing company.

In the last 6 months AI has taken over our purchase orders, inventory counts, work order reports and half my inbox. It's even helping with CAD layouts and PLC/HMI programming.

I'll post exactly how, step by step. No courses, no hype.

What's the one task in your shop you'd hand off first?

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@davidburkus Same on the plant floor. AI does all of our scheduling and emails now, so the next question is which status meetings we still need.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

NVIDIA's robots are practiving cable swaps in simulation. Our AI at the shop is not at that level yet. It still controls the desk managing inventory, scheduling, plc automation, and our emails.

[NVIDIA Robotics @NVIDIARobotics]

A finer touch for humanoid robots. 🤖

At #CoRL2026, NVIDIA is introducing GR00T 2, an open world action model for humanoids, alongside new open industrial benchmarks from @RLWRLD_ai and @UCBerkeley built on Isaac Lab-Arena.

Explore how NVIDIA’s open world action models, scalable simulation tools and agentic workflows help researchers train, test and refine robot skills, from connecting cables to assembling small components.

Discover more ➡️ https://t.co/spzxPurj6y

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

AI is not coming for the guy with the wrench. All jobs that deal directly with paperwork and computers will be obsolete within 12-18 months.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

Elon is the people’s people. He recognizes an issue and immediately acts. The things that most people don’t realize is that him acting promptly speeds up and helps identify and solve issues in a timely manner.

Other companies and business owners will say I’ll get to it sometime this week.

[Texas Twins Dad @Texas_Twins_Dad]

This is why Elon is so successful. He deserves that success. Who else does this?

[Texas Twins Dad @Texas_Twins_Dad]

This is why Elon is so successful. He deserves that success. Who else does this?

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@elonmusk Grok Bot now is sleeping on the warehouse floor dreaming of its next tasks

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

We use AI at our plant for POs and scheduling, and it saves real time on the first draft.

But a person still checks which machines/equipment are running before the schedule goes out.

The companies cleaning up now skipped that part.

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

The AI layoff gamble is backfiring.

Companies that rushed to replace workers with AI are now cleaning up the mess, per The Guardian.

Meta scaled back plans to cut staff and use more AI agents after employees spent growing time cleaning up the agents’ technical and security errors. It’s now rehiring managers.
Microsoft and McKinsey are limiting employee AI use as costs pile up.
Walmart workers say AI scheduling and task tools set impossible standards and generate false alerts.

The payoff isn’t showing up: 90% of executives say AI hasn’t yet boosted productivity at their companies, per an Atlanta Fed working paper.

Yet more than 112,000 US job cuts this year have cited AI, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@aakashgupta That’s how it lands on our floor too.

The machine takes the body-breaking piece, and the person still owns setup and the first-unit check.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@mdancho84 Same on a plant floor.

AI drafts our POs now, and buyers job went from typing them to checking them.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@ctbeiser €4k for a real lace machine beats another sim. Just budget the first scrap—same as our CAD drafts here. AI gets the shape close; the machine shows what the prompt missed.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

Eleven hours of cut time out of four days is normal here too. The rest is setup, waiting on material, and checking the drawing before anything touches a tool.

What eats the most non-cut time in your shop? https://t.co/m9m6LPd6Of

[Konstantin Saifoulline @konstantinsaifo]

A titanium bracket spends 4 days in a machine shop. It is cut for 11 hours of them.

This is the shop's whole week, so you can see where the rest of the time goes. Built with Claude Opus 5.5.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@MachineShopTalk Scheduling and quoting are where our week actually breaks, not spindle time. AI drafts both here; a person still signs anything that touches a promise date. Which of those eats more of your day?

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

Nothing hits the weekly schedule until someone confirms which machines are actually up.

AI drafts it. It doesn't know what's down. That check is still a person.

What do you verify before the schedule goes out?

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@assetblaze That's exactly it. AI flags the packing-slip mismatch the next morning, and a person fixes it the same day. Month-end surprises are the ones that turn into stories.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

I run field ops at a manufacturing company.

In the last 6 months AI has taken over our purchase orders, inventory counts, work order reports and half my inbox. It's even helping with CAD layouts and PLC/HMI programming.

I'll post exactly how, step by step. No courses, no hype.

What's the one task in your shop you'd hand off first?

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@Solvaix Fast CAD is useful. What I care about is the next step: no drawing goes to our floor until the person who has to build the part has looked at it.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@ltgiv Agreed on the hello-world path. At our plant AI helps with CAD, but the machinist still gets the last word before anything goes to the floor.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@Markus_864 Thanks for the follow. Same rule on my side: AI can draft the PLC, but nothing goes near a machine until I've checked every rung myself.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@UsePlatonic Appreciate the offer. Keeping replies on X for now while I stay on the floor. Happy to keep trading notes here on how the short list shrinks week to week.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

Same goes for AI on purchasing. If the record is wrong, AI just writes the wrong PO faster.

Our fix is boring: every morning AI checks packing slips against open POs and lists the shorts, and a person decides which ones matter. https://t.co/B3VA6223U8

[Gather AI Inc. @gather_ai]

One in four supply chain leaders regret their automation decision, and 65% paid more than they expected (Exotec survey, 250 decision-makers). Robots execute your inventory record at speed. Get the record right before you buy the speed.
https://t.co/izeQafOYoH

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@blind_via 653-page datasheet for one footprint is a special kind of pain. Before AI touched a single PO here, I had to clean the mess of the same part carrying a different number at every vendor.

[Blue Collar AI @BlueCollarAI_]

@CallBackEngUS Naming the owner of that morning list is the whole game. For shops I set up phones for in Southeast Alabama, every overnight call gets a set callback time, and someone keeps it.