AI exposure: Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers
Assemble, install, repair, or maintain electric or hydraulic freight or passenger elevators, escalators, or dumbwaiters.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.3% of weighted task load, Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers sits at the 15th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 80.4% 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 20 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 Maintain log books that detail all repairs and checks performed, at 50.0%. The least is Cut prefabricated sections of framework, rails, and other components to specified dimensions, 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 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 14 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 20 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 1 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 | 0.65 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.65 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.33 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.02 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.30 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.50 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain log books that detail all repairs and checks performed. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.37 | exposed |
| Check that safety regulations and building codes are met, and complete service reports verifying conformance to standards. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.52 | assisted |
| Read and interpret blueprints to determine the layout of system components, frameworks, and foundations, and to select installation equipment. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.41 | exposed |
| Participate in additional training to keep skills up to date. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Locate malfunctions in brakes, motors, switches, and signal and control systems, using test equipment. | 10.8% | 14.2% | 75.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Test newly installed equipment to ensure that it meets specifications, such as stopping at floors for set amounts of time. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| Operate elevators to determine power demands, and test power consumption to detect overload factors. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Inspect wiring connections, control panel hookups, door installations, and alignments and clearances of cars and hoistways to ensure that equipment will operate properly. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.80 | untouched |
| Assemble, install, repair, and maintain elevators, escalators, moving sidewalks, and dumbwaiters, using hand and power tools, and testing devices such as test lamps, ammeters, and voltmeters. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Disassemble defective units, and repair or replace parts such as locks, gears, cables, and electric wiring. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.53 | untouched |
| Adjust safety controls, counterweights, door mechanisms, and components such as valves, ratchets, seals, and brake linings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Connect car frames to counterweights, using steel cables. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Connect electrical wiring to control panels and electric motors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.37 | untouched |
| Install electrical wires and controls by attaching conduit along shaft walls from floor to floor and pulling plastic-covered wires through the conduit. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Attach guide shoes and rollers to minimize the lateral motion of cars as they travel through shafts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.94 | untouched |
| Install outer doors and door frames at elevator entrances on each floor of a structure. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Assemble elevator cars, installing each car's platform, walls, and doors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Bolt or weld steel rails to the walls of shafts to guide elevators, working from scaffolding or platforms. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Assemble electrically powered stairs, steel frameworks, and tracks, and install associated motors and electrical wiring. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Cut prefabricated sections of framework, rails, and other components to specified dimensions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 2 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.