AI exposure: Pourers and Casters, Metal
Operate hand-controlled mechanisms to pour and regulate the flow of molten metal into molds to produce castings or ingots.
Reading this score
computedAt 9.4% of weighted task load, Pourers and Casters, Metal sits at the 13th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 85.3% 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 16 tasks it averages 2.81 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 Read temperature gauges and observe color changes, adjusting furnace flames, torches, or..., at 39.6%. The least is Add metal to molds to compensate for shrinkage, at 0.0%. A gap of 39.6% 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 83 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 16 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 14 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 | 0.59 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.81 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.47 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.25 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.91 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.84 | 0-3 |
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read temperature gauges and observe color changes, adjusting furnace flames, torches, or electrical heating units as necessary to melt metal to specifications. | 39.6% | 22.9% | 37.5% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Pull levers to lift ladle stoppers and to allow molten steel to flow into ingot molds to specified heights. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.50 | exposed |
| Stencil identifying information on ingots and pigs, using special hand tools. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Turn valves to circulate water through cores, or spray water on filled molds to cool and solidify metal. | 17.5% | 7.5% | 75.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Pour and regulate the flow of molten metal into molds and forms to produce ingots or other castings, using ladles or hand-controlled mechanisms. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.69 | untouched |
| Examine molds to ensure they are clean, smooth, and properly coated. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Transport metal ingots to storage areas, using forklifts. | 8.3% | 4.2% | 87.5% | 3.65 | untouched |
| Repair and maintain metal forms and equipment, using hand tools, sledges, and bars. | 6.7% | 5.8% | 87.5% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Remove solidified steel or slag from pouring nozzles, using long bars or oxygen burners. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Collect samples, or signal workers to sample metal for analysis. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Load specified amounts of metal and flux into furnaces or clay crucibles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Position equipment such as ladles, grinding wheels, pouring nozzles, or crucibles, or signal other workers to position equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Skim slag or remove excess metal from ingots or equipment, using hand tools, strainers, rakes, or burners, collecting scrap for recycling. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Assemble and embed cores in casting frames, using hand tools and equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Remove metal ingots or cores from molds, using hand tools, cranes, and chain hoists. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Add metal to molds to compensate for shrinkage. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.10 | 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.