AI exposure: Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
Operate one or more of a variety of office machines, such as photocopying, photographic, and duplicating machines, or other office machines.
Reading this score
computedAt 30.0% of weighted task load, Office Machine Operators, Except Computer sits at the 53th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 59.7% 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 18 tasks it averages 2.13 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 stock of supplies, and requisition any needed items, at 80.0%. The least is Move heat units and clamping frames over screen beds to form Braille impressions on pages,..., at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% 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 office and administrative support occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 55.9% across the group's 51 roles, with 47 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 18 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 12 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 | 1.52 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.13 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.24 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.43 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.65 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.44 | 0-3 |
Task by task
18 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain stock of supplies, and requisition any needed items. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Complete records of production, including work volumes and outputs, materials used, and any backlogs. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.21 | exposed |
| Prepare and process papers for use in scanning, microfilming, and microfiche. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Compute prices for services and receive payment, or provide supervisors with billing information. | 57.4% | 25.9% | 16.7% | 4.21 | exposed |
| Read job orders to determine the type of work to be done, the quantities to be produced, and the materials needed. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.49 | exposed |
| Sort, assemble, and proof completed work. | 38.3% | 11.7% | 50.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Place original copies in feed trays, feed originals into feed rolls, or position originals on tables beneath camera lenses. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Operate office machines such as high speed business photocopiers, readers, scanners, addressing machines, stencil-cutting machines, microfilm readers or printers, folding and inserting machines, bursters, and binder machines. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Load machines with materials such as blank paper or film. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Operate auxiliary machines such as collators, pad and tablet making machines, staplers, and paper punching, folding, cutting, and perforating machines. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Clean machines, perform minor repairs, and report major repair needs. | 17.8% | 7.2% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Monitor machine operation, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure proper operation. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| File and store completed documents. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Deliver completed work. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Set up and adjust machines, regulating factors such as speed, ink flow, focus, and number of copies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.17 | untouched |
| Clean and file master copies or plates. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.72 | untouched |
| Cut copies apart and write identifying information, such as page numbers or titles, on copies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.51 | untouched |
| Move heat units and clamping frames over screen beds to form Braille impressions on pages, raising frames to release individual copies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.62 | 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.