AI exposure: Potters, Manufacturing
Operate production machines such as pug mill, jigger machine, or potter's wheel to process clay in manufacture of ceramic, pottery and stoneware products.
Reading this score
computedAt 14.4% of weighted task load, Potters, Manufacturing sits at the 23th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.4% 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 23 tasks it averages 2.48 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 Design clay forms and molds, and decorations for forms, at 60.0%. The least is Examine finished ware for defects and measure dimensions, at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% 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 production occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 16.2% across the group's 107 roles, with 61 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 23 tasks, 5 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 | 0.98 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.48 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.28 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.02 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.70 | 0-3 |
Task by task
23 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design clay forms and molds, and decorations for forms. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Maintain supplies of tools, equipment, and materials, and order additional supplies as needed. | 52.5% | 22.5% | 25.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Design spaces to display pottery for sale. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Adjust pressures, temperatures, and trimming tool settings as required. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Pack and ship pottery to stores or galleries for retail sale. | 30.0% | 7.5% | 62.5% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Start machine units and conveyors and observe lights and gauges on panel board to verify operational efficiency. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.64 | exposed |
| Operate gas or electric kilns to fire pottery pieces. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.83 | untouched |
| Operate pug mills to blend and extrude clay. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.94 | untouched |
| Operate drying chambers to dry or finish molded ceramic ware. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.83 | untouched |
| Adjust wheel speeds according to the feel of the clay as pieces enlarge and walls become thinner. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Attach handles to pottery pieces. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Prepare work for sale or exhibition, and maintain relationships with retail, pottery, art, and resource networks that can facilitate sale or exhibition of work. | 14.2% | 10.8% | 75.0% | 4.51 | untouched |
| Perform test-fires of pottery to determine how to achieve specific colors and textures. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
| Teach pottery classes. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 2.20 | untouched |
| Mix and apply glazes to pottery pieces, using tools, such as spray guns. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Raise and shape clay into wares, such as vases and pitchers, on revolving wheels, using hands, fingers, and thumbs. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Position balls of clay in centers of potters' wheels, and start motors or pump treadles with feet to revolve wheels. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Move pieces from wheels so that they can dry. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Press thumbs into centers of revolving clay to form hollows, and press on the inside and outside of emerging clay cylinders with hands and fingers, gradually raising and shaping clay to desired forms and sizes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Smooth surfaces of finished pieces, using rubber scrapers and wet sponges. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
| Pull wires through bases of articles and wheels to separate finished pieces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Verify accuracy of shapes and sizes of objects, using calipers and templates. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Examine finished ware for defects and measure dimensions, using rule and thickness gauge. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | 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.