While AI is undoubtedly revolutionizing the way many office jobs are done, the effects of new technologies on blue-collar jobs often go unnoticed.
But it is in these concrete sectors that AI can really make a difference, not only increasing productivity and efficiency, but also improving the safety and well-being of workers.
At the recent Samsara Beyond 2026 conference, I saw first-hand some of the new AI-powered tools and services that could revolutionize the operations industry in the years to come, but I also learned why human connection will always remain vital.
AI Improvement
“Humans are extremely capable – and I don’t see machines or AI replacing them anytime soon – I think this will augment us and help us,” Johan Land, CPO at Samsara, told me at the event.
We’re speaking after a jam-packed keynote during which the company unveiled a host of new AI-powered tools and services, from a smart shipping label sticker to a 360-degree camera that can help truck drivers navigate cramped delivery zones.
But it’s the new AI tools that have attracted a lot of attention, including the ability for drivers to speak directly to their manager or an AI agent remotely, as well as a new AI Studio that lets customers create tailor-made offerings for specific use cases – so why the focus so much on AI right now, I ask Land.
“First of all, AI has improved a lot over time, but beyond that, our customers want it,” he notes, highlighting how Samsara can help its customers on how best to integrate AI into their systems.
“Physical operations are difficult! It’s labor intensive, many tasks are very repetitive, and it’s difficult to hire staff. So this solves a very acute problem in that sense.”
Ryan Yu, vice president of product at Samsara, agrees with Land and tells me that Samsara’s goal “is to be the operating system for physical operations.”
When it comes to improving the efficiency of client workflows, “there are so many things at our fingertips,” he notes, emphasizing the importance of automating the big things, in a way that makes sense.
Samsara’s customer base includes everyone from mining operations to construction companies, school districts to logistics companies. So I ask Land how important AI will be as a selling point compared to its competitors – and how keen these more “traditional” industries are to work with AI.
“Probably the hardest thing about AI is making it work for people in their real lives and creating real value,” he says, “it can easily become vaporware, it looks good on the surface.”
“Sometimes they understand (AI), and sometimes they don’t,” he adds, “but that doesn’t matter – and it might be even better if you don’t understand it, because their expectations are very high… it’s empowerment, they expect it to work.”
“We need to provide the rails,” Yu adds, “and we also need to provide guidance on what kinds of use cases are best served… because the underlying technology is always evolving.”
AI augments humans
So how long will it be before even the busiest industries fully embrace AI to get their jobs done? Land notes that the work is already well advanced.
“Overall, we see AI augmenting humans, taking care of certain tasks,” he says, “but overall it’s making humans more empowered, stronger and more capable.”
Yu notes that the immediate future will be dominated by themes of “discovery, education and adoption” by customers, and the role Samsara can play in this regard.
“We want to make sure we meet them where they are and provide them with the right models,” he notes, “and the good thing is we know what their most important use cases are and what they struggle with… when we talk about reducing manual chores, we deeply understand how customers interact with their products.”
“It’s a time of distractions,” laughs Land, “but for us it’s very simple, we follow our customers, we talk to them, understand what their problems are, what they want from us, and that’s how we literally prioritize everything we do.”
“The direction we’re heading in is that a job site or workplace of the future will contain all kinds of things… the way we think of ourselves as the connective tissue – the agentic platform that ties it all together.”
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