Jun 8, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
Robin Clevett talks to fellow Carpenter, David Byrne & Also Fix Radio Presenter, Paul Meenan and asks them about AI, their experiences with AI, Whether it's good, bad, neither and also what impact it…
Lawyers, for example, might be affected, but carpenters and joiners could potentially become a trade that's even more valued and higher paid.
We're way off being able to build robots that could replace carpenters, particularly with renovation work with fairly fixed parameters.
So could you see a growth in people joining an industry like yours that's hard to replace with AI and robotics?" So, uh, le- let's unpack that a little bit.
Of course, I would totally agree that there's a lot of things that you can't replace by AI for carpenters.
However, I will say this, some trades have already been eliminated by technology.
Even if you're gonna spend 300 grand on the CNC machine that does it, you can do handrails up and down the country, 'cause all you need is someone to go in, scan the area, AI sets it all out.
So we're already doing it, okay? So there are possibilities that it will replace quite a lot of what we can do from a sort of technical point of view, and also how we run our businesses.
We're gonna become even more efficient, which means that less time doing the admin, more time on the tools, which could mean we could earn more money.
However, I often think that if everyone's piling into it, it's gonna force the prices down, and AI's gonna help them train.
So, um, I think that we've gotta still be really, really careful and not get too carried away with the fact that we're safe as tradespeople.
Next, I'll talk to David Byrne, who briefly touched on this topic last time he was on the show.
Lawyers, for example, might be affected, but carpenters and joiners could potentially become a trade that's even more valued and higher paid.
We're way off being able to build robots that could replace carpenters, particularly with renovation work with fairly fixed parameters.
So could you see a growth in people joining an industry like yours that's hard to replace with AI and robotics?" So, uh, le- let's unpack that a little bit.
Of course, I would totally agree that there's a lot of things that you can't replace by AI for carpenters.
However, I will say this, some trades have already been eliminated by technology.
Even if you're gonna spend 300 grand on the CNC machine that does it, you can do handrails up and down the country, 'cause all you need is someone to go in, scan the area, AI sets it all out.
So we're already doing it, okay? So there are possibilities that it will replace quite a lot of what we can do from a sort of technical point of view, and also how we run our businesses.
We're gonna become even more efficient, which means that less time doing the admin, more time on the tools, which could mean we could earn more money.
However, I often think that if everyone's piling into it, it's gonna force the prices down, and AI's gonna help them train.
So, um, I think that we've gotta still be really, really careful and not get too carried away with the fact that we're safe as tradespeople.
Next, I'll talk to David Byrne, who briefly touched on this topic last time he was on the show.
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