AI exposure: Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
Design, make, alter, repair, or fit garments.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.1% of weighted task load, Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers sits at the 14th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 85.7% 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 22 tasks it averages 2.50 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 Estimate how much a garment will cost to make, based on factors such as time and material..., at 73.3%. The least is Sew buttonholes and attach buttons to finish garments, 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 79 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 22 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 17 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 | 0.68 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.50 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.23 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.16 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.86 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.39 | 0-3 |
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimate how much a garment will cost to make, based on factors such as time and material requirements. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Examine tags on garments to determine alterations that are needed. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.93 | exposed |
| Confer with customers to determine types of material and garment styles desired. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.95 | exposed |
| Measure customers, using tape measures, and record measurements. | 31.7% | 18.3% | 50.0% | 4.25 | exposed |
| Measure parts, such as sleeves or pant legs, and mark or pin-fold alteration lines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Remove stitches from garments to be altered, using rippers or razor blades. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Let out or take in seams in suits and other garments to improve fit. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Fit and study garments on customers to determine required alterations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.25 | untouched |
| Trim excess material, using scissors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Assemble garment parts and join parts with basting stitches, using needles and thread or sewing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Make garment style changes, such as tapering pant legs, narrowing lapels, and adding or removing padding. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Maintain garment drape and proportions as alterations are performed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Take up or let down hems to shorten or lengthen garment parts, such as sleeves. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Press garments, using hand irons or pressing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Fit, alter, repair, and make made-to-measure clothing, according to customers' and clothing manufacturers' specifications and fit, and applying principles of garment design, construction, and styling. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Position patterns of garment parts on fabric, and cut fabric along outlines, using scissors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Record required alterations and instructions on tags, and attach them to garments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Put in padding and shaping materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.70 | untouched |
| Sew buttonholes and attach buttons to finish garments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.57 | 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.