AI exposure: Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
Grind, sand, or polish, using hand tools or hand-held power tools, a variety of metal, wood, stone, clay, plastic, or glass objects. Includes chippers, buffers, and finishers.
Reading this score
computedAt 11.5% of weighted task load, Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand sits at the 17th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 82.4% 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 17 tasks it averages 2.65 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 product and processing data on specified forms, at 73.3%. The least is Clean brass particles from files by drawing file cards through file grooves, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 72 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 17 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 14 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 | 0.65 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.65 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.12 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.41 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.73 | 0-3 |
Task by task
17 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record product and processing data on specified forms. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.88 | exposed |
| Select files or other abrasives, according to materials, sizes and shapes of workpieces, amount of stock to be removed, finishes specified, and steps in finishing processes. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.03 | exposed |
| Study blueprints or layouts to determine how to lay out workpieces or saw out templates. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.37 | exposed |
| Move controls to adjust, start, or stop equipment during grinding and polishing processes. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Verify quality of finished workpieces by inspecting them, comparing them to templates, measuring their dimensions, or testing them in working machinery. | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.5% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Repair and maintain equipment, objects, or parts, using hand tools. | 5.8% | 6.7% | 87.5% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Grind, sand, clean, or polish objects or parts to correct defects or to prepare surfaces for further finishing, using hand tools and power tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Measure and mark equipment, objects, or parts to ensure grinding and polishing standards are met. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Trim, scrape, or deburr objects or parts, using chisels, scrapers, and other hand tools and equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Mark defects, such as knotholes, cracks, and splits, for repair. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Load and adjust workpieces onto equipment or work tables, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| File grooved, contoured, and irregular surfaces of metal objects, such as metalworking dies and machine parts, to conform to templates, other parts, layouts, or blueprint specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.69 | untouched |
| Sharpen abrasive grinding tools, using machines and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.54 | untouched |
| Transfer equipment, objects, or parts to specified work areas, using moving devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.43 | untouched |
| Remove completed workpieces from equipment or work tables, using hand tools, and place workpieces in containers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Apply solutions and chemicals to equipment, objects, or parts, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.57 | untouched |
| Clean brass particles from files by drawing file cards through file grooves. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 1.55 | 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.