AI exposure: Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend machines to extrude or draw thermoplastic or metal materials into tubes, rods, hoses, wire, bars, or structural shapes.
Reading this score
computedAt 13.1% of weighted task load, Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic sits at the 21th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.5% 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 16 tasks it averages 2.64 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 Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods, at 50.0%. The least is Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments, at 0.0%. A gap of 50.0% 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 production occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 16.2% across the group's 107 roles, with 64 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 16 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 13 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 | 0.84 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.64 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.25 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.12 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.90 | 0-3 |
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.46 | exposed |
| Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications. | 35.4% | 27.1% | 37.5% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Maintain an inventory of materials. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion. | 25.0% | 12.5% | 62.5% | 4.70 | untouched |
| Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Test physical properties of products with testing devices such as acid-bath testers, burst testers, and impact testers. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
| Troubleshoot, maintain, and make minor repairs to equipment. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products. | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.5% | 4.73 | untouched |
| Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Load machine hoppers with mixed materials, using augers, or stuff rolls of plastic dough into machine cylinders. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Clean work areas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Replace worn dies when products vary from specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.10 | untouched |
| Reel extruded products into rolls of specified lengths and weights. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.74 | untouched |
| Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.69 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 1 task(s) lacked a usable O*NET weight and are shown but excluded from the weighting.
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.