Investing.com -- Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said the artificial intelligence boom will drive a significant increase in blue-collar employment as asset managers invest billions in data centers and related infrastructure.

QTS, a data-center operator backed by Blackstone, will have 40,000 people working on job sites across the country by the end of the year, up from 10,000 one year ago, Gray said during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

"This is a huge boom in blue collar employment, certainly over the next 5 years," Gray said. "Where these jobs are, it may change — the middle of the country is where the bulk of this physical investment is happening."

The remarks come as the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has raised concerns about potential job displacement. A Boston Consulting Group report found that AI could eliminate as much as 15% of jobs in the next five years, though a larger portion will be reshaped by the technology.

Franklin Resources Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jenny Johnson said new jobs could emerge as more people use AI and develop applications for it.

"None of us are that good at using these tools yet," she said on the same panel. "Once you get those tools in people's hands, we're going to find there's massive more things that we never understood we needed that we're suddenly not going to live without."