AI exposure: Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters
Place and detonate explosives to demolish structures or to loosen, remove, or displace earth, rock, or other materials. May perform specialized handling, storage, and accounting procedures.
Reading this score
computedAt 9.1% of weighted task load, Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters sits at the 12th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 83.9% 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 27 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 Compile and keep gun and explosives records in compliance with local and federal laws, at 50.0%. The least is Signal crane operators to move equipment, 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 16 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 27 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 21 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 | 0.70 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.65 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.88 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.36 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.40 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.75 | 0-3 |
Task by task
27 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compile and keep gun and explosives records in compliance with local and federal laws. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.50 | exposed |
| Maintain inventory levels, ordering new supplies as necessary. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Document geological formations encountered during work. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | – | exposed |
| Create and lay out designs for drill and blast patterns. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | – | exposed |
| Examine blast areas to determine amounts and kinds of explosive charges needed and to ensure that safety laws are observed. | 42.5% | 32.5% | 25.0% | 4.88 | exposed |
| Set up and operate short-wave radio or field telephone equipment to transmit and receive blast information. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.83 | exposed |
| Drive trucks to transport explosives and blasting equipment to blasting sites. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Verify detonation of charges by observing control panels, or by listening for the sounds of blasts. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Tie specified lengths of delaying fuses into patterns in order to time sequences of explosions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.69 | untouched |
| Place safety cones around blast areas to alert other workers of danger zones, and signal workers as necessary to ensure that they clear blast sites prior to explosions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.64 | untouched |
| Place explosive charges in holes or other spots; then detonate explosives to demolish structures or to loosen, remove, or displace earth, rock, or other materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.61 | untouched |
| Insert, pack, and pour explosives, such as dynamite, ammonium nitrate, black powder, or slurries into blast holes; then shovel drill cuttings, admit water into boreholes, and tamp material to compact charges. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Mark patterns, locations, and depths of charge holes for drilling, and issue drilling instructions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Measure depths of drilled blast holes, using weighted tape measures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Connect electrical wire to primers, and cover charges or fill blast holes with clay, drill chips, sand, or other material. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Lay primacord between rows of charged blast holes, and tie cord into main lines to form blast patterns. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Assemble and position equipment, explosives, and blasting caps in holes at specified depths, or load perforating guns or torpedoes with explosives. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Move and store inventories of explosives, loaded perforating guns, and other materials, according to established safety procedures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Light fuses, drop detonating devices into wells or boreholes, or activate firing devices with plungers, dials, or buttons, in order to set off single or multiple blasts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Cut specified lengths of primacord and attach primers to cord ends. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Repair and service blasting, shooting, and automotive equipment, and electrical wiring and instruments, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.72 | untouched |
| Insert waterproof sealers, bullets, and/or powder charges into guns, and screw gun ports back into place. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.83 | untouched |
| Clean, gauge, and lubricate gun ports. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.83 | untouched |
| Lower perforating guns into wells, using hoists; then use measuring devices and instrument panels to position guns in correct positions for taking samples. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.71 | untouched |
| Operate machines to flush earth cuttings or to blow dust from holes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Set up and operate equipment such as hoists, jackhammers, and drills, in order to bore charge holes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
| Signal crane operators to move equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 5 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.