AI exposure: Lighting Technicians
Set up, maintain, and dismantle light fixtures, lighting control devices, and the associated lighting electrical and rigging equipment used for photography, television, film, video, and live productions. May focus or operate light fixtures, or attach color filters or other lighting accessories.
Reading this score
computedAt 11.4% of weighted task load, Lighting Technicians sits at the 17th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.1% 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 2.59 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 Notify supervisors when major lighting equipment repairs are needed, at 45.0%. The least is Set up scaffolding or cranes to assist with setting up of lighting equipment, at 0.0%. A gap of 45.0% 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 arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 38.5% across the group's 40 roles, with 38 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, 4 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 12 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 | 0.88 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.59 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.77 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.36 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.49 | 0-3 |
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notify supervisors when major lighting equipment repairs are needed. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | – | exposed |
| Consult with lighting director or production staff to determine lighting requirements. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | – | exposed |
| Operate manual or automated systems to control lighting throughout productions. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | – | exposed |
| Visit and assess structural and electrical layout of locations before setting up lighting equipment. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | – | exposed |
| Program lighting consoles or load automated lighting control systems onto consoles. | 14.2% | 10.8% | 75.0% | – | untouched |
| Match light fixture settings, such as brightness and color, to lighting design plans. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | – | untouched |
| Assess safety of wiring or equipment set-up to determine the risk of fire or electrical shock. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | – | untouched |
| Test lighting equipment function and desired lighting effects. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | – | untouched |
| Disassemble and store equipment after performances. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Install color effects or image patterns, such as color filters, onto lighting fixtures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Install electrical cables or wire fixtures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Load, unload, or position lighting equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Patch or wire lights to dimmers or other electronic consoles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Perform minor repairs or routine maintenance on lighting equipment, such as replacing lamps or damaged color filters. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Set up and focus light fixtures to meet requirements of television, theater, concerts, or other productions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Set up scaffolding or cranes to assist with setting up of lighting equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 16 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.