Fence Erectors

Building and installing fences remains mostly a hands-on job. Tasks like measuring fence lines, digging postholes, cutting rails, and quoting customers are done by people ^{[1] [1]}. Right now there’s no robot or AI that does all these steps on its own.

Workers use special equipment – for example, sensors or ground-penetrating radar to avoid hitting buried cables – but experts warn you still can’t fully trust AI to “tell you where to dig” ^[2]. Instead, new tech tends to help people work faster and more accurately. For example, some smartphone or tablet apps use augmented reality (AR) to measure a yard and draw an exact fence plan on-screen ^{[3] [3]}.

Likewise, many companies now use smart software (with AI features) to schedule crews or estimate materials and costs, which cuts down on paperwork ^{[4] [4]}. Still, the core work – digging the holes, setting up posts, and attaching rails – is done by humans with power tools. Construction researchers note that every job site is different and unpredictable, so creating fully automated fence-builders is very hard ^[5].

Large-scale automation in fencing is slow because most fence projects are unique and on small sites. Studies of construction note that the variability of jobs and industry resistance to change make robots for such varied work expensive and uncommon ^[5]. Most fence companies are small businesses, so buying costly new machines is risky.

It makes more sense for them to use affordable AI tools for non-physical tasks. For example, cloud-based scheduling or dispatch apps with AI features can cost under $60 a month ^[4], yet save hours of office work. Surveys report that about 40% of tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, landscapers, etc.) already use these AI-enabled business tools to boost productivity ^[4].

Importantly, the fence-erector role is officially listed as a “Bright Outlook” job ^[1], meaning demand is growing and human workers are needed. In practice, this means skilled people – especially those good with customers and problem-solving – remain valuable. Over time, fence businesses will likely adopt more AI for planning and communication, but most experts agree the on-site building work will still require people ^{[5] [4]}.