AI exposure: Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend machines to prepare industrial or consumer products for storage or shipment. Includes cannery workers who pack food products.
Reading this score
computedAt 8.8% of weighted task load, Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders sits at the 11th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 86.3% 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 20 tasks it averages 2.80 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 Count and record finished and rejected packaged items, at 47.9%. The least is Clean and remove damaged or otherwise inferior materials to prepare raw products for processing, at 0.0%. A gap of 47.9% 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 less exposed than the median of 16.2% across the group's 107 roles, with 91 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 20 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 16 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 | 0.55 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.80 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.24 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.20 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.57 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.48 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count and record finished and rejected packaged items. | 47.9% | 14.6% | 37.5% | 4.05 | exposed |
| Regulate machine flow, speed, or temperature. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.34 | exposed |
| Observe machine operations to ensure quality and conformity of filled or packaged products to standards. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Monitor the production line, watching for problems such as pile-ups, jams, or glue that isn't sticking properly. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.41 | exposed |
| Stop or reset machines when malfunctions occur, clear machine jams, and report malfunctions to a supervisor. | 23.8% | 13.8% | 62.5% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Stock and sort product for packaging or filling machine operation, and replenish packaging supplies, such as wrapping paper, plastic sheet, boxes, cartons, glue, ink, or labels. | 15.8% | 9.2% | 75.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Attach identification labels to finished packaged items, or cut stencils and stencil information on containers, such as lot numbers or shipping destinations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.53 | untouched |
| Sort, grade, weigh, and inspect products, verifying and adjusting product weight or measurement to meet specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
| Remove finished packaged items from machine and separate rejected items. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Inspect and remove defective products and packaging material. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Start machine by engaging controls. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Tend or operate machine that packages product. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Clean, oil, and make minor adjustments or repairs to machinery and equipment, such as opening valves or setting guides. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Adjust machine components and machine tension and pressure according to size or processing angle of product. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Supply materials to spindles, conveyors, hoppers, or other feeding devices and unload packaged product. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Stack finished packaged items, or wrap protective material around each item, and pack the items in cartons or containers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Package the product in the form in which it will be sent out, for example, filling bags with flour from a chute or spout. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Clean packaging containers, line and pad crates, or assemble cartons to prepare for product packing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Secure finished packaged items by hand tying, sewing, gluing, stapling, or attaching fastener. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Clean and remove damaged or otherwise inferior materials to prepare raw products for processing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | 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.