The 48th WorldSkills Competition is under way in Shanghai, where 1,385 competitors from 68 countries and regions are testing themselves across 64 skill categories. The lineup spans traditional trades such as bricklaying and welding alongside newer fields like drone systems and software testing, a snapshot of how vocational skills are shifting as work becomes more digital and more automated.

With AI advancing quickly, the question of whether skilled trades workers will be replaced has become a talking point both on and off the competition floor.

Adaptability Remains a Human Edge

Daniel Brenner, the German bricklaying competitor, said he is not worried about being replaced by AI. People, he argued, can adjust on the fly to whatever a job site throws at them. When a construction drawing contains an error, an experienced worker can rework the plan quickly, something AI still handles poorly.

Andy Jacobsen, a bricklaying competitor from Denmark, noted that some in his country have tried using robots to lay walls, but bricks, mortar and robotic equipment do not yet work together smoothly every time. When the machinery fails, a human still has to step in.

Robots may eventually prove better at consistency and sustained output, he said, but they have not fully replaced manual skill yet.

AI Is Reshaping Vocational Training and Skills Competitions

Hubert Romer, the official delegate of the German team, said AI will not render human expertise meaningless. If anything, people still need their own knowledge and skills to understand, use and direct AI in order to get real value out of the technology.

Matthew Barrett, head of the Australian delegation, said AI may take over some tasks, but new technology also creates new jobs. Workers will need to keep refreshing their knowledge and skills as the nature of the work changes.

AI and digital technology are also reshaping vocational education systems. Lee Mi-kyung, head of the South Korean delegation, said AI is influencing curricula at Korean schools and universities and pushing skills competition categories to keep evolving. Some traditional skill content will gradually change, while new skill categories and career tracks are folded into both education and competition.

Once schools start teaching new skills and industry demand for those workers stabilizes, those shifts filter through to vocational education and skills competitions.

The Value of a Trade Goes Beyond Efficiency

The worth of a skill is not measured only in speed and precision.

Isabell Kischka, 21, competing for Germany in health and social care, has worked in nursing for about three years. She chose the field not because it is closely tied to technology, but because she likes helping people and enjoys being around them.

As she sees it, with populations aging, demand for care work will hold steady around the world.

Different occupations, in other words, derive their value differently. Some are built around precision and efficiency. Others hinge on reading what another person needs, communicating in the moment and building trust.

AI can enter these professions and change plenty of the individual tasks within them, but the value of the work itself cannot be reduced to how much of it AI can do.

Human-Machine Collaboration as the Path Forward

Francis Uhan, president of WorldSkills, said AI has already arrived in many industries. What matters next is not a simple choice between humans and AI, but working out how the two fit together.

In manufacturing, software testing, drone systems and care work, AI can absorb the repetitive, standardized and high-intensity load, while humans keep doing what they do best: judging situations on the ground, thinking creatively, communicating and taking responsibility.

That collaborative model may well define where vocational skills go next.

Lifelong Learning Becomes the Core Skill

Asked what ability young people most need in the age of AI, the WorldSkills president had a one-word answer: lifelong learning.

As technology keeps turning over, skilled workers will need to continually rebuild their knowledge base and master new digital tools and smart equipment, while holding on to their ability to solve complex problems, adapt to conditions on site and work with other people.

AI will not simply take over everything, but it will redefine the substance and the method of a great deal of work. For skilled trades workers, what counts is not dodging technological change but learning actively and improving steadily, and finding a new place of value in a workplace built on human-machine collaboration.