That's a good illustration. The last couple years that turned the world economy into a wreck and more small businesses destroyed than any time in our lives.
As to education the vast majority of classes are designed with short term memorization and regurgitation on a test as rewarded practices. Other than short labs, there really isn't much if any real training.
That's true of liberal arts majors or of medical school. A good education is one which makes the subject matter useful and relevant. As a handyman, you probably relate to beginning a job by evaluation of the repair, replacement or construction. Then estimate the cost of materials, time of labor, relative risk and difficulty, and hired helpers. After that there may be many steps to finish a job and get paid a fair amount that comes hopefully close to the estimate with a return on the work.
The communication skills, arithmetic, and technical skills required are practical and necessary. That's an education that doesn't get the credit it deserves.
Nowadays, the average student spends at least 13 years of school plus free college, if under the promised scholarship; thousands of hours and tens of thousands of our tax dollars to come out the other end with their free education. I would not hire most of them if I was still in a position to hire. Some make exceptionally good employees, but that's not the average. On the job training or a period of apprenticeship is still necessary in many cases.
AI and Robotics can do the jobs of half of Americans. Let's run through a few examples.
1. They can do your taxes for you.
2. They can diagnose diseases
3. You can replace cashiers
4. they can replace janitors
5. They can replace people working in manufacturing.
6. They can replace soldiers and pilots.
7. Computers can diagnose what is wrong with your car so that mechanics can be relatively unskilled.
There are many more examples. Right now they work best in tandem with people. So instead of a team of 7 lawyers and a bunch of paras on a case you can get by with two lawyers, one para, and AI. The same is true when fixing cars, or operating in the battlefield, or so many other places.
The economics is also clear, once you start using these tools you get the most for your money if you maximize your use of it. If a law firm subscribed to a AI service, then it is cheaper if everyone in the firm uses it as much as possible.
Restaurants are doing the same thing, having one large centralized kitchen that makes the food and packages it in little bags of frozen meals. As a result the "chefs" can be minimum wage workers who merely heat up frozen dinners.
The same is true with security. No one would want to have AI and robots do everything, but on the other hand what secure location does not maximize their use of electronic tools like cameras, key access, alarms, etc.
Amazon.com and Walmart and others would prefer if you shop online. Doing that saves them money and it can greatly reduce the labor cost.
The bottom line is we are already at a place where you can replace 50% of the workforce with robots and AI and it will be a very short time before we can replace 80%.
Even in construction we can use 3d printers to make houses. Prefabricated houses are very economic and practical.