AI exposure: Brickmasons and Blockmasons
Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block, and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other substances, to construct or repair walls, partitions, arches, sewers, and other structures.
Reading this score
computedBrickmasons and Blockmasons is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 7.2% of weighted task load, rank 845 of 923. 86.6% 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 14 tasks it averages 2.68 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 Interpret blueprints and drawings to determine specifications and to calculate the materials..., at 41.7%. The least is Spray or spread refractory material over brickwork to protect against deterioration, at 0.0%. A gap of 41.7% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 61 roles in the group is 5.0%, and only 21 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 14 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 12 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 | 0.46 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.68 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.14 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.54 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.11 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.07 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interpret blueprints and drawings to determine specifications and to calculate the materials required. | 41.7% | 20.8% | 37.5% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Calculate angles and courses and determine vertical and horizontal alignment of courses. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.34 | assisted |
| Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.52 | untouched |
| Measure distance from reference points and mark guidelines to lay out work, using plumb bobs and levels. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.71 | untouched |
| Construct corners by fastening in plumb position a corner pole or building a corner pyramid of bricks, and filling in between the corners using a line from corner to corner to guide each course, or layer, of brick. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Apply and smooth mortar or other mixture over work surface. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.30 | untouched |
| Remove excess mortar with trowels and hand tools, and finish mortar joints with jointing tools, for a sealed, uniform appearance. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Fasten or fuse brick or other building material to structure with wire clamps, anchor holes, torch, or cement. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Clean working surface to remove scale, dust, soot, or chips of brick and mortar, using broom, wire brush, or scraper. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.80 | untouched |
| Mix specified amounts of sand, clay, dirt, or mortar powder with water to form refractory mixtures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.52 | untouched |
| Remove burned or damaged brick or mortar, using sledgehammer, crowbar, chipping gun, or chisel. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.15 | untouched |
| Lay and align bricks, blocks, or tiles to build or repair structures or high temperature equipment, such as cupola, kilns, ovens, or furnaces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.41 | untouched |
| Spray or spread refractory material over brickwork to protect against deterioration. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.91 | 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.