---
id: "action-workforce-partnerships"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Understanding the Constraints"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/10/is-ai-a-boom-or-a-bubble"
source_title: "Is AI a Boom or a Bubble?"
tags: ["labor", "infrastructure", "partnerships"]
related: ["concept-new-ai-triad", "claim-physical-constraints"]
speakers: ["Paulo Carvão"]
action: "Form partnerships with trade schools to train physical infrastructure workers."
outcome: "A reliable pipeline of skilled labor to build and maintain data centers."
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-foci-74-ai-boom-or-bubble"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/10/is-ai-a-boom-or-a-bubble"
sourceTitle: "Is AI a Boom or a Bubble?"
---
# Invest in Trade School Partnerships

**Action:** Form partnerships with trade schools to train physical-infrastructure workers.
**Expected outcome:** A reliable pipeline of skilled labor to build and maintain data centers.

To overcome shortages in **skilled trades — electricians, construction workers, technicians** — required to build physical AI infrastructure, firms should invest in workforce partnerships with trade schools. This is the labor leg of [[concept-new-ai-triad|the New AI Triad]] and a direct mitigation for [[claim-physical-constraints|physical constraints]] on scaling.


## Related across articles
- [[concept-capability-debt-d2]]
- [[action-pair-senior-junior]]