AI exposure: Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend forging machines to taper, shape, or form metal or plastic parts.
Reading this score
computedAt 16.3% of weighted task load, Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic sits at the 27th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 75.7% 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 12 tasks it averages 2.53 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 Confer with other workers about machine setups and operational specifications, at 60.0%. The least is Position and move metal wires or workpieces through a series of dies that compress and shape..., at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 107 roles in the group is 16.1%, and only 51 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 12 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 10 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 | 0.78 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.53 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.22 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.32 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.00 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.71 | 0-3 |
Task by task
12 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confer with other workers about machine setups and operational specifications. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Read work orders or blueprints to determine specified tolerances and sequences of operations for machine setup. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Turn handles or knobs to set pressures and depths of ram strokes and to synchronize machine operations. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
| Select, align, and bolt positioning fixtures, stops, and specified dies to rams and anvils, forging rolls, or presses and hammers. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
| Set up, operate, or tend presses and forging machines to perform hot or cold forging by flattening, straightening, bending, cutting, piercing, or other operations to taper, shape, or form metal. | 15.8% | 9.2% | 75.0% | 3.55 | untouched |
| Start machines to produce sample workpieces, and observe operations to detect machine malfunctions and to verify that machine setups conform to specifications. | 14.2% | 10.8% | 75.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Repair, maintain, and replace parts on dies. | 4.3% | 4.1% | 91.7% | 3.83 | untouched |
| Measure and inspect machined parts to ensure conformance to product specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Trim and compress finished forgings to specified tolerances. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.47 | untouched |
| Install, adjust, and remove dies, synchronizing cams, forging hammers, and stop guides, using overhead cranes or other hoisting devices, and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Remove dies from machines when production runs are finished. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Position and move metal wires or workpieces through a series of dies that compress and shape stock to form die impressions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.62 | 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.