AI exposure: Helpers--Carpenters
Help carpenters by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.
Reading this score
computedHelpers--Carpenters is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 2.5% of weighted task load, rank 901 of 923. 96.2% 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 19 tasks it averages 2.93 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 tools, equipment, or materials from storage and transport items to work site, at 32.2%. The least is Cut tile or linoleum to fit and spread adhesives on flooring for installation, at 0.0%. A gap of 32.2% 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 44 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 19 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 18 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 | 0.11 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.93 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.05 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.39 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.95 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.99 | 0-3 |
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select tools, equipment, or materials from storage and transport items to work site. | 32.2% | 17.8% | 50.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Erect scaffolding, shoring, or braces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.91 | untouched |
| Clean work areas, machines, or equipment, to maintain a clean and safe job site. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Align, straighten, plumb, or square forms for installation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Fasten timbers or lumber with glue, screws, pegs, or nails and install hardware. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.63 | untouched |
| Position and hold timbers, lumber, or paneling in place for fastening or cutting. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Cut timbers, lumber, or paneling to specified dimensions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.57 | untouched |
| Hold plumb bobs, sighting rods, or other equipment to aid in establishing reference points and lines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | untouched |
| Cut or weld metal. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | untouched |
| Drill holes in timbers or lumber. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.28 | untouched |
| Glue and clamp edges or joints of assembled parts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.22 | untouched |
| Install handrails under the direction of a carpenter. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.03 | untouched |
| Construct forms and assist in raising them to the required elevation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.67 | untouched |
| Secure stakes to grids for constructions of footings, nail scabs to footing forms, and vibrate and float concrete. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.64 | untouched |
| Perform tie spacing layout and measure, mark, drill or cut. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.56 | untouched |
| Smooth or sand surfaces to remove ridges, tool marks, glue, or caulking. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.27 | untouched |
| Cover surfaces with laminated plastic covering material. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.24 | untouched |
| Cut and install insulating or sound-absorbing material. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.86 | untouched |
| Cut tile or linoleum to fit and spread adhesives on flooring for installation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.11 | 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.