AI exposure: Proofreaders and Copy Markers
Read transcript or proof type setup to detect and mark for correction any grammatical, typographical, or compositional errors. Excludes workers whose primary duty is editing copy. Includes proofreaders of braille.
Reading this score
computedProofreaders and Copy Markers sits in the top 0% of every occupation measured. 70.2% of what this job consists of, weighted by how important each task is to the role, is work current AI systems can produce with little standing in the way. Very few occupations score this high. The ones that do tend to share a trait: the output is a document, a calculation or a message, and nobody has to be in a particular room for it to count.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is context at 1.36 out of 3 and the weakest is embodiment at 0.27, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Consult reference books or secure aid of readers to check references with rules of grammar and..., at 93.3%. The least is Route proofs with marked corrections to authors, editors, typists, or typesetters for..., at 26.7%. A gap of 66.7% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 51 roles in the group is 54.6%, and only 2 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 11 tasks, 10 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 0 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take capability alone, since there is little structural friction here to slow adoption once a system can do the work. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
11 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consult reference books or secure aid of readers to check references with rules of grammar and composition. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.31 | exposed |
| Mark copy to indicate and correct errors in type, arrangement, grammar, punctuation, or spelling, using standard printers' marks. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Read corrected copies or proofs to ensure that all corrections have been made. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Correct or record omissions, errors, or inconsistencies found. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.55 | exposed |
| Typeset and measure dimensions, spacing, and positioning of page elements, such as copy and illustrations, to verify conformance to specifications, using printer's ruler or layout software. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Read proof sheets aloud, calling out punctuation marks and spelling unusual words and proper names. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.33 | exposed |
| Archive documents, conduct research, and read copy, using the internet and various computer programs. | 72.9% | 14.6% | 12.5% | 3.87 | exposed |
| Compare information or figures on one record against same data on other records, or with original copy, to detect errors. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.42 | exposed |
| Consult with authors and editors regarding manuscript changes and suggestions. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Write original content, such as headlines, cutlines, captions, and cover copy. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 3.63 | assisted |
| Route proofs with marked corrections to authors, editors, typists, or typesetters for correction or reprinting. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.35 | exposed |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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 | 3.59 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.27 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.55 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.36 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.00 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
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.