AI exposure: Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.8% of weighted task load, Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers sits at the 15th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 82.0% 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 30 tasks it averages 2.65 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 Develop templates and models for welding projects, at 60.0%. The least is Set up and use ladders and scaffolding as necessary to complete work, at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% 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 76 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 30 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 24 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 | 0.73 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.65 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.33 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.87 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.18 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.27 | 0-3 |
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.69 | exposed |
| Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors. | 35.4% | 27.1% | 37.5% | 4.11 | exposed |
| Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and operations. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | – | exposed |
| Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals. | 21.2% | 16.2% | 62.5% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Operate metal shaping, straightening, and bending machines, such as brakes and shears. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.25 | untouched |
| Preheat workpieces prior to welding or bending, using torches or heating furnaces. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.54 | untouched |
| Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment. | 8.8% | 3.8% | 87.5% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.61 | untouched |
| Melt and apply solder along adjoining edges of workpieces to solder joints, using soldering irons, gas torches, or electric-ultrasonic equipment. | 7.9% | 4.6% | 87.5% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Melt and apply solder to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products, using soldering equipment. | 7.9% | 4.6% | 87.5% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths. | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.5% | 3.49 | untouched |
| Ignite torches or start power supplies and strike arcs by touching electrodes to metals being welded, completing electrical circuits. | 6.2% | 6.2% | 87.5% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools. | 5.2% | 3.1% | 91.7% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
| Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
| Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.57 | untouched |
| Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | untouched |
| Check grooves, angles, or gap allowances, using micrometers, calipers, and precision measuring instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.72 | untouched |
| Use fire suppression methods in industrial emergencies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.71 | untouched |
| Set up and use ladders and scaffolding as necessary to complete work. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.47 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 1 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.