AI exposure: Locksmiths and Safe Repairers
Repair and open locks, make keys, change locks and safe combinations, and install and repair safes.
Reading this score
computedLocksmiths and Safe Repairers is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 5.4% of weighted task load, rank 868 of 923. 92.6% 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 2.79 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 Keep records of company locks and keys, at 73.3%. The least is Remove interior and exterior finishes on safes and vaults, and spray on new finishes, 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 installation, maintenance and repair occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 13.8% across the group's 50 roles, with 42 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 14 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 13 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 | 0.29 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.79 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.21 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.61 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.11 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.00 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep records of company locks and keys. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Cut new or duplicate keys, using impressions or code key machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.75 | untouched |
| Insert new or repaired tumblers into locks to change combinations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.58 | untouched |
| Move picklocks in cylinders to open door locks without keys. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Cut new or duplicate keys, using key cutting machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Open safe locks by drilling. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Set up and maintain master key systems. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Install door hardware, such as locks and closers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Disassemble mechanical or electrical locking devices, and repair or replace worn tumblers, springs, and other parts, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Repair and adjust safes, vault doors, and vault components, using hand tools, lathes, drill presses, and welding and acetylene cutting apparatus. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Install alarm and electronic access systems. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Install safes, vault doors, and deposit boxes according to blueprints, using equipment such as power drills, taps, dies, truck cranes, and dollies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Unlock cars and other vehicles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.26 | untouched |
| Remove interior and exterior finishes on safes and vaults, and spray on new finishes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 1.75 | 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.