AI exposure: Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
Press or shape articles by hand or machine.
Reading this score
computedPressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 4.2% of weighted task load, rank 886 of 923. 93.6% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 28 tasks it averages 2.86 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 appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance, at 50.0%. The least is Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, 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 101 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 28 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 26 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 | 0.27 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.86 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.05 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.12 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.44 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.33 | 0-3 |
Task by task
28 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.31 | exposed |
| Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.06 | exposed |
| Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools. | 23.8% | 13.8% | 62.5% | 3.58 | untouched |
| Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as tape measures and micrometers. | 8.3% | 4.2% | 87.5% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants. | 6.7% | 5.8% | 87.5% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.58 | untouched |
| Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.51 | untouched |
| Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
| Identify and treat spots on garments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Slide material back and forth over heated, metal, ball-shaped forms to smooth and press portions of garments that cannot be satisfactorily pressed with flat pressers or hand irons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Spray water over fabric to soften fibers when not using steam irons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Position materials such as cloth garments, felt, or straw on tables, dies, or feeding mechanisms of pressing machines, or on ironing boards or work tables. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.17 | untouched |
| Moisten materials to soften and smooth them. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Press ties on small pressing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Use covering cloths to prevent equipment from damaging delicate fabrics. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.25 | untouched |
| Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Measure fabric to specifications, cut uneven edges with shears, fold material, and press it with an iron to form a heading. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Insert heated metal forms into ties and touch up rough places with hand irons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Brush materials made of suede, leather, or felt to remove spots or to raise and smooth naps. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, using sewing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | 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.