The AI workforce boom has often been framed around white-collar work, with the narrative mainly focused on how the technology can boost productivity for workers who spend their days sitting at a desk.
But beyond this, another workforce has been largely overlooked — plumbers, electricians and field technicians.
According to Sifted data, European construction tech startups — which are working on everything from construction materials discovery and construction software to health and safety compliance — have raised €297m so far this year. If investment continues at its current pace, they’ll have raised roughly €850m by the end of the year, a 140% increase on the €354m raised in 2025.
Yet only around 12% of global trade companies use AI in their work processes, according to a Royal Institution of Chartered Survey 2025 report.
As of the beginning of 2026, this trend is starting to shift, with a number of startups trying to infiltrate the sector. London-based Elyos AI, which develops AI agents to automate admin tasks such as out-of-hours customer service through voice and email, appointment reminders, scheduling and sales, is one company working to drive more AI-use within the trades sector. It raised a $13m (£9.6m) Series A round in January.
Field service businesses have a huge overhead of manual admin work, outside of the trade that they have specialised in, says Elyos founder Phillipa Brown, who spent three years heading up operations at OVO Energy and has trained as an electrician.
“We believe AI agents will automate the majority of that work,” she adds.
The company works with customers such as fire safety company Amax Fire, gas services company GasCare and property service provider James Frew.
Sifted sat down with Brown to unpack how AI agents are helping streamline operations, reduce admin work and boost productivity in the trades sector.
Why has AI in the trades services been overlooked?
Much of the discussion around AI and workflows is centered around how it can benefit office workers. However, the trades sector is “definitely not a market you should scoff at,” she says.
Building tools that customers actually love to use and that are built for them is where great products are made.
There is a misconception that trades workers are reluctant to adopt these kinds of technologies, but the team behind Elyos AI has seen how crucial they can be.
“It’s about the tools not being designed for them,” Brown says. “This is where Elyos comes in. We build AI agents specifically for this customer segment.
“Building tools that customers actually love to use and that are built for them is where great products are made. I don’t think there’s a lack of adoption at all. When I speak to customers and tell them about our product, they’re really excited by the technology and how it can help them grow their business.”
AI in the trades sector: ‘The trades sector will become a safe space for young people to upskill’
Workers in the trade sector want to be spending most of their time out in the field delivering services to customers and focusing on the aspects of the job they are actually trained for, Brown says.
This was the starting point for Elyos when creating products that allowed trade employees to utilise their time more effectively.
A lot of people are saying plumbers and electricians are going to become the new lawyers of the next generation.
“We’ve seen the quickest adoption with products that help with answering the phone, replying to emails, booking and scheduling jobs and contacting and liaising with engineers,” Brown says.
“Mainly taking the grunt work that a business owner doesn’t want to deal with, but knows that they have to.”
Large corporations such as Amazon and Uber are able to interact and reply automatically to customer queries 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she adds, and customers now expect this from every company.
Elyos’s out-of-hours agent and daytime customer rep can be integrated into a company’s booking platform and provide automated real-time responses to customers.
The startup’s AI sales executive follows up on leads and quotes as well as keeping pipelines organised. It also has a field engineer AI assistant, which acts as a virtual assistant to support with job notes, timesheets and close down jobs.
Humans will be the plumbers and electricians but AI agents will run the office autonomously.
“Big companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI are going to be automating a huge amount of office work and basic admin,” Brown says. “The trades sector is going to become a safe space for young people to upskill and get valuable jobs in.
“Imagine how productive a trades business could be if booking and scheduling jobs didn’t take up so much time. A lot of people are saying plumbers and electricians are going to become the new lawyers of the next generation.”
The biggest challenge that the Elyos team has witnessed is the wider adoption and education around AI, which is something the company is hoping to improve on over the next few years.
“The plumbers and electricians we serve adopt products quickly,” Brown says. “But helping their teams is more time consuming and that takes a lot of training and education on our side. This is a cultural change that is slower than we anticipated.”
Future of AI and the trades sector
Over the next five to ten years, Brown hopes to see AI implemented across the entire trades sector within admin tasks.
“Humans will be the plumbers and electricians but AI agents will run the office autonomously,” she says. “Running customer contact, scheduling, financing and payroll.
“Over the next few decades, I think developers will also be making inroads towards humanoid robots being able to do plumbing and electrician tasks themselves.”
