AI exposure: Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.
Reading this score
computedAt 22.1% of weighted task load, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers sits at the 41th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 69.7% 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 2.28 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 Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles, at 73.3%. The least is Rotate molds to distribute alloys and to prevent formation of air pockets, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 107 roles in the group is 16.1%, and only 17 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 30 tasks, 9 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 | 1.11 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.28 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.10 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.39 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.11 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.02 | 0-3 |
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.32 | exposed |
| Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Select and acquire metals and gems for designs. | 64.2% | 23.3% | 12.5% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Create new jewelry designs and modify existing designs, using computers as necessary. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Write or modify design specifications such as the metal contents and weights of items. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.73 | exposed |
| Research and analyze reference materials, and consult with interested parties to develop new products or modify existing designs. | 52.5% | 22.5% | 25.0% | 3.54 | exposed |
| Determine appraised values of diamonds and other gemstones based on price guides, market fluctuations, and stone grades and rarity. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Buy and sell jewelry, or serve as agents between buyers and sellers. | 39.6% | 22.9% | 37.5% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Mark, engrave, or emboss designs on metal pieces such as castings, wire, or jewelry, following specifications. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 3.51 | untouched |
| Cut designs in molds or other materials to be used as models in the fabrication of metal and jewelry products. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 3.26 | untouched |
| Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Anneal precious metal objects such as coffeepots, tea sets, and trays in gas ovens for prescribed times to soften metal for reworking. | 7.9% | 4.6% | 87.5% | 2.84 | untouched |
| Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies. | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.5% | 3.73 | untouched |
| Weigh, mix, and melt metal alloys or materials needed for jewelry models. | 5.0% | 3.3% | 91.7% | 3.17 | untouched |
| Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
| Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.37 | untouched |
| Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Shape and straighten damaged or twisted articles by hand or using pliers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.23 | untouched |
| Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
| Pierce and cut open designs in ornamentation, using hand drills and scroll saws. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.62 | untouched |
| Pour molten metal alloys or other materials into molds to cast models of jewelry. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.26 | untouched |
| Lay out designs on metal stock, and cut along markings to fabricate pieces used to cast metal molds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.46 | untouched |
| Design and fabricate molds, models, and machine accessories, and modify hand tools used to cast metal and jewelry pieces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.36 | untouched |
| Rout out locations where parts are to be joined to items, using routing machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.25 | untouched |
| Rotate molds to distribute alloys and to prevent formation of air pockets. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.60 | 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.