AI exposure: Medical Appliance Technicians
Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices such as braces, orthotics and prosthetic devices, joints, arch supports, and other surgical and medical appliances.
Reading this score
computedAt 8.9% of weighted task load, Medical Appliance Technicians sits at the 11th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 86.7% 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 16 tasks it averages 2.69 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 Order parts or supplies for orthotic or prosthetic devices, at 70.0%. The least is Fit appliances onto patients, and make any necessary adjustments, at 0.0%. A gap of 70.0% 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 90 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, 2 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 | 0.56 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.69 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.00 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.19 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.31 | 0-3 |
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order parts or supplies for orthotic or prosthetic devices. | 70.0% | 17.5% | 12.5% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Read prescriptions or specifications to determine the type of product or device to be fabricated and the materials and tools required. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.49 | exposed |
| Test medical supportive devices for proper alignment, movement, or biomechanical stability, using meters and alignment fixtures. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Polish artificial limbs, braces, or supports, using grinding and buffing wheels. | 8.3% | 4.2% | 87.5% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Instruct patients in use of prosthetic or orthotic devices. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Repair, modify, or maintain medical supportive devices, such as artificial limbs, braces, or surgical supports, according to specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Construct or receive casts or impressions of patients' torsos or limbs for use as cutting and fabrication patterns. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Make orthotic or prosthetic devices, using materials such as thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, metal alloys and leather, and hand or power tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Bend, form, and shape fabric or material to conform to prescribed contours of structural components. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.30 | untouched |
| Drill and tap holes for rivets, and glue, weld, bolt, or rivet parts together to form prosthetic or orthotic devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Lay out and mark dimensions of parts, using templates and precision measuring instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Cover or pad metal or plastic structures or devices, using coverings such as rubber, leather, felt, plastic, or fiberglass. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.82 | untouched |
| Mix pigments to match patients' skin coloring, according to formulas, and apply mixtures to orthotic or prosthetic devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Service or repair machinery used in the fabrication of appliances. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.20 | untouched |
| Take patients' body or limb measurements for use in device construction. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.79 | untouched |
| Fit appliances onto patients, and make any necessary adjustments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.28 | 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.