AI exposure: Tapers
Seal joints between plasterboard or other wallboard to prepare wall surface for painting or papering.
Reading this score
computedTapers is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 3.0% of weighted task load, rank 894 of 923. 94.2% 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 16 tasks it averages 2.88 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 the correct sealing compound or tape, at 40.0%. The least is Apply texturizing compounds or primers to walls or ceilings before final finishing, at 0.0%. A gap of 40.0% 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 construction and extraction occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 5.1% across the group's 61 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, 1 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 15 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 | 0.25 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.88 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.06 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.38 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.00 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.94 | 0-3 |
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select the correct sealing compound or tape. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.98 | exposed |
| Check adhesives to ensure that they will work and will remain durable. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Press paper tape over joints to embed tape into sealing compound and to seal joints. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Spread and smooth cementing material over tape, using trowels or floating machines to blend joints with wall surfaces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| Spread sealing compound between boards or panels or over cracks, holes, nail heads, or screw heads, using trowels, broadknives, or spatulas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Work on high ceilings, using scaffolding or other tools, such as stilts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.23 | untouched |
| Seal joints between plasterboard or other wallboard to prepare wall surfaces for painting or papering. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Apply additional coats to fill in holes and make surfaces smooth. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Countersink nails or screws below surfaces of walls before applying sealing compounds, using hammers or screwdrivers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Mix sealing compounds by hand or with portable electric mixers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Sand or patch nicks or cracks in plasterboard or wallboard. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Install metal molding at wall corners to secure wallboard. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Use mechanical applicators that spread compounds and embed tape in one operation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.91 | untouched |
| Sand rough spots of dried cement between applications of compounds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Remove extra compound after surfaces have been covered sufficiently. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.84 | untouched |
| Apply texturizing compounds or primers to walls or ceilings before final finishing, using trowels, brushes, rollers, or spray guns. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.68 | 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.