AI exposure: Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door
Install, repair, and maintain mechanical regulating and controlling devices, such as electric meters, gas regulators, thermostats, safety and flow valves, and other mechanical governors.
Reading this score
computedAt 13.8% of weighted task load, Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door sits at the 22th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.0% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 32 tasks it averages 2.67 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Record meter readings and installation data on meter cards, work orders, or field service..., at 80.0%. The least is Connect hoses from provers to meter inlets and outlets, and raise prover bells until prover..., at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within installation, maintenance and repair occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 50 roles in the group is 12.8%, and only 24 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 32 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 27 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.76 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.67 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.52 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.67 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.18 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.29 | 0-3 |
Task by task
32 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record meter readings and installation data on meter cards, work orders, or field service orders, or enter data into hand-held computers. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Record maintenance information, including test results, material usage, and repairs made. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.13 | exposed |
| Report hazardous field situations and damaged or missing meters. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Advise customers on proper installation of valves or regulators and related equipment. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.36 | exposed |
| Shut off service and notify repair crews when major repairs are required, such as the replacement of underground pipes or wiring. | 18.8% | 18.8% | 62.5% | 3.92 | untouched |
| Test valves and regulators for leaks and accurate temperature and pressure settings, using precision testing equipment. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Turn valves to allow measured amounts of air or gas to pass through meters at specified flow rates. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Vary air pressure flowing into regulators and turn handles to assess functioning of valves and pistons. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.85 | untouched |
| Make adjustments to meter components, such as setscrews or timing mechanisms, so that they conform to specifications. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.57 | untouched |
| Calibrate instrumentation, such as meters, gauges, and regulators, for pressure, temperature, flow, and level. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Turn meters on or off to establish or close service. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Examine valves or mechanical control device parts for defects, dents, or loose attachments, and mark malfunctioning areas of defective units. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.83 | untouched |
| Investigate instances of illegal tapping into service lines. | 10.0% | 40.0% | 50.0% | 3.81 | assisted |
| Dismantle meters, and replace or adjust defective parts such as cases, shafts, gears, disks, and recording mechanisms, using soldering irons and hand tools. | 5.2% | 3.1% | 91.7% | 3.67 | untouched |
| Install, inspect and test electric meters, relays, and power sources to detect causes of malfunctions and inaccuracies, using hand tools and testing equipment. | 3.9% | 4.4% | 91.7% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Disassemble and repair mechanical control devices or valves, such as regulators, thermostats, or hydrants, using power tools, hand tools, and cutting torches. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Lubricate wearing surfaces of mechanical parts, using oils or other lubricants. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Install regulators and related equipment such as gas meters, odorization units, and gas pressure telemetering equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Cut seats to receive new orifices, tap inspection ports, and perform other repairs to salvage usable materials, using hand tools and machine tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Mount and install meters and other electric equipment such as time clocks, transformers, and circuit breakers, using electricians' hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.82 | untouched |
| Connect regulators to test stands, and turn screw adjustments until gauges indicate that inlet and outlet pressures meet specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Trace and tag meters or house lines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.79 | untouched |
| Repair electric meters and components, such as transformers and relays, and replace metering devices, dial glasses, and faulty or incorrect wiring, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Replace defective parts, such as bellows, range springs, and toggle switches, and reassemble units according to blueprints, using cam presses and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.74 | untouched |
| Measure tolerances of assembled and salvageable parts for conformance to standards or specifications, using gauges, micrometers, and calipers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.70 | untouched |
| Clean internal compartments and moving parts, using rags and cleaning compounds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.69 | untouched |
| Disconnect or remove defective or unauthorized meters, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.67 | untouched |
| Attach air hoses to meter inlets, plug outlets, and observe gauges for pressure losses to test internal seams for leaks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.63 | untouched |
| Repair leaks in valve seats or bellows of automotive heater thermostats, using soft solder, flux, and acetylene torches. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.48 | untouched |
| Splice and connect cables from meters or current transformers to pull boxes or switchboards, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | untouched |
| Clean plant growth, scale, paint, soil, or rust from meter housings, using wire brushes, scrapers, buffers, sandblasters, or cleaning compounds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.14 | untouched |
| Connect hoses from provers to meter inlets and outlets, and raise prover bells until prover gauges register zero. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.10 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.