The AI economy is not only a software story. Data centres, electricity networks, cooling, connectivity and cybersecurity are creating demand for technical workers – a trend that could reshape skills policy in Georgia.
Key Takeaway
Debate about artificial intelligence often starts with job displacement. Yet the current investment cycle is also generating work for people who build and maintain the physical systems behind AI: electricians, electrical engineers, cooling specialists, network engineers, data-centre technicians and cybersecurity professionals.
The Economist’s September 12th 2026 analysis estimates that AI has so far created around one million jobs in the United States, compared with roughly 200,000 layoffs attributed to AI since mid-2023. This is an analytical estimate rather than an official government count, but it highlights an important mechanism: AI can create employment through infrastructure investment, new specialist roles and productivity-driven demand.
Georgia should not assume that the American pattern will be reproduced at the same scale. Its market is smaller and there is not yet evidence of a large domestic data-centre construction boom. Still, employment in technology-related sectors is growing, vocational education already has a sizeable engineering and ICT pipeline, and the electricity transmission network is undergoing major investment.
AI is becoming a physical infrastructure economy
To users, AI looks like software. Behind the interface, however, are servers, network equipment, transformers, cooling systems, backup power and data centres. As computing demand rises, more people are needed to design, build, connect and maintain those systems.
The Economist reports that annualised US data-centre construction spending exceeds $75bn and is nearly 60% higher than a year earlier. Across five industries central to the build-out, employment since 2023 has risen by roughly 320,000 more than broader construction and manufacturing trends would suggest. The article also cites LinkedIn estimates of nearly half a million US data-centre jobs created between 2023 and 2025, with technicians and engineers among the most common recent hires.
Not all of these jobs can be attributed to AI. Grid upgrades, factory construction and the broader digital economy matter too. That distinction is important for Georgia: the evidence supports a growing value of infrastructure skills, not a claim that AI alone will automatically create thousands of local jobs.
The occupations most likely to gain value
Electricians and electrical engineers are the clearest candidates. Data centres require high-capacity connections, substations, uninterrupted power systems and continuous reliability. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects electrician employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, versus 3% for all occupations, and explicitly links part of the additional demand to AI, data centres and power-grid upgrades.
Cooling and ventilation specialists form a second group. Heavy computing workloads generate heat, and for a data centre overheating is a continuity risk rather than a comfort issue. Designing, installing and maintaining high-reliability cooling systems therefore becomes a more valuable skill.
Data-centre and network technicians are a third group. Installing and maintaining servers, cables, network equipment and backup systems requires practical technical expertise. Many such roles can be reached through vocational rather than four-year university pathways, which gives them particular relevance for Georgia.
Cybersecurity is the fourth. As more activity depends on connected and automated systems, businesses need people who understand networks, system administration, access control and data protection together. Hybrid engineers and technical managers who can connect power, automation, digital infrastructure and business requirements may become especially scarce.
Georgia: the skills base is growing, but AI employment is not separately measured
According to Georgia’s National Statistics Office, Geostat, employment in information and communication increased from 49.8 thousand people in Q2 2025 to 53.0 thousand in Q2 2026. According to calculations by BTU researchers, that is growth of about 6.4%. Average monthly remuneration rose from GEL 4,243.4 to GEL 4,463.9, or about 5.2%.
In professional, scientific and technical activities, employment rose from 25.5 thousand to 27.0 thousand over the same period – about 5.9% – while average monthly remuneration increased from GEL 3,442.5 to GEL 3,693.0, about 7.3%. These are broad sector indicators and do not isolate AI effects, but they show that Georgia already has a growing base of technology and professional employment.
Vocational education also matters. In 2025 Georgia admitted 19.7 thousand students to vocational programmes, 15.3% more than in 2024. Engineering, manufacturing and construction accounted for 18.2% of admissions, while information and communication technologies accounted for 18.0%. Together, these fields cover a large share of the skills relevant to digital infrastructure.
Power-grid investment is already creating demand for engineering skills
Georgia’s digital-infrastructure potential cannot be separated from its electricity system. Under the Energy Network Improvement Programme, Georgian State Electrosystem is building or expanding seven substations and more than 540 kilometres of transmission lines. The programme totals EUR 270m and is scheduled for completion in 2028.
These projects are not AI projects and their jobs should not be counted as AI employment. They do, however, require many of the same underlying capabilities – high-voltage engineering, installation, system reliability and technical supervision – that would also be needed by large digital facilities in the future.
Why wages could rise
Technical wages rise when demand for scarce skills expands faster than the supply of qualified workers. Infrastructure can be financed relatively quickly; experienced electrical engineers, cooling specialists or network technicians cannot be trained overnight. In a small labour market, even a handful of large projects can create bottlenecks.
The US experience illustrates the mechanism. Indeed data cited by The Economist show that installation and maintenance jobs at data centres advertise pay around 40% above similar work elsewhere. That premium should not be transferred directly to Georgia, where wages, market size and investment volumes are very different. But it demonstrates how infrastructure investment can rapidly raise the price of scarce technical skills.
According to an assessment by BTU researchers, the most plausible high-demand categories for Georgia are electrical engineering and power systems, data and network infrastructure maintenance, cooling systems and cybersecurity. The assessment is conditional on continued energy and digital infrastructure investment and wider practical adoption of AI by Georgian firms.
What this means for education and business
Preparing for AI should not be reduced to expanding coding courses. Georgia may need stronger links between education and real infrastructure projects in electrical engineering, power systems, industrial automation, cooling technology, network infrastructure and cybersecurity.
For vocational colleges, programmes that combine basic electrical skills, network equipment, safety and technical monitoring could become particularly useful. Universities can add value by combining energy or electrical engineering with data infrastructure and automation.
Businesses should also change the question they ask. Instead of only asking which tasks can be automated, they should ask which new specialists will be required to keep automated systems reliable. This matters for banks, telecom operators, utilities, manufacturers, retailers and public digital services.
Conclusion
Yes, AI is creating jobs as well as replacing some tasks. For Georgia, the most realistic source of new demand may be not only AI software roles but the technical occupations behind the technology.
Electrical engineers, electricians, cooling specialists, data-centre technicians, network engineers and cybersecurity professionals could become more valuable if investment in digital and energy infrastructure continues. But a large Georgian data-centre employment boom is not yet an established fact, so this is a conditional opportunity rather than a forecast.
Georgia’s preparedness for the AI era may therefore depend on more than the number of programmers it trains. It will also depend on whether the country has enough people who can power, connect, cool, secure and maintain the physical infrastructure of the digital economy.
Data and Main Sources
The Economist, “Help wanted: The jobs apocalypse is postponed. An AI jobs boom is here”, September 12, 2026 – source PDF supplied by the user.
National Statistics Office of Georgia – Information and Communication – https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/410/information-and-communication2465
National Statistics Office of Georgia – Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities – https://www.geostat.ge/index.php/en/modules/categories/406/professional-scientific-and-technical-activities2453
National Statistics Office of Georgia – Indicators of Vocational Education Institutions (2025) – https://www.geostat.ge/media/77116/INDICATORS-OF-VOCATIONAL-EDUCATION-INSTITUTIONS—%282025%29.pdf
Georgian State Electrosystem – Energy Network Improvement Programme – https://candidate.gse.com.ge/projects/international-projects/ENIP/construction-of-lajanuri-and-ozurgeti-ss-and-expansion-of-ss-akhaltsikhe-lot-1-substations/
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employment Projections 2025–2035 – https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm
Prepared by the academic team of Business and Technology University and the BTUAI Research Team, Tbilisi, Georgia.