{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/computer-automated-teller-and-office-machine-repairers/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers", "soc_code": "49-2011", "category": "Trades", "us_employment": 65600, "median_annual_wage": 47810 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 46, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 13, "embodiment": 16, "liability_shield": 2, "trust_premium": 7, "judgment_accountability": 8 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 13 the physical work — pulling a fuser, reseating a dispenser, replacing a bill validator, swapping a hard drive — stays manual, but the diagnostic half of the call that used to fill your day is increasingly done before you arrive by machine telemetry and vendor error-code lookups, which is what keeps this out of the 14-20 band.", "embodiment": "You work inside a bank vestibule at 2am, in copier rooms with the machine half-disassembled on the floor, in retail backrooms and hospital wards, hauling parts and lifting 60lb modules — nothing about the placement, cabling, or contamination of a real installed machine is a controlled environment, which is why this sits at 16 rather than mid-band.", "liability_shield": "There is no state licence to repair an ATM or a multifunction printer; OEM certifications (Canon, Diebold Nixdorf, CompTIA A+) gate who gets dispatched but the service contract sits with the employer or vendor, so nothing legal blocks a lower-cost or remote channel from taking the work.", "trust_premium": "A 7 reflects that branch managers and office administrators come to ask for you by name once you know which of their machines runs hot and where the jams start — but the dispatch comes through a national service contract that can reassign the route tomorrow, so the relationship never becomes the thing being bought.", "judgment_accountability": "Most calls run against OEM service manuals, error codes, and escalation trees, with discretion showing up in judgment calls like whether a repeat-jam copier is worth another fuser or should be flagged for replacement, and in cash-handling and chain-of-custody decisions inside an ATM — real, but bounded by procedure, hence 8." }, "rationale": "Swapping ATM dispenser modules, clearing paper paths in high-volume copiers, replacing fusers and card readers, and re-imaging POS terminals are hands-on jobs that no robot does today — that's the real moat. The exposure is different: remote telemetry and vendor diagnostics already handle the fault isolation and parts-recommendation work that used to justify a truck roll, and the installed base of office machines and bank branches is shrinking. The threat here is demand contraction and remote-first support models, not an AI that turns a screwdriver.", "outlook": "The work itself stays human and hands-on, but headcount keeps drifting down as remote diagnostics absorb triage and the office-machine and branch-ATM footprint shrinks; the survivors are the ones certified on cash-handling hardware and networked kiosks.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Key-injection and tamper work is already fenced by PCI PIN Security Requirements and ASC X9 TR-31/TR-34: only certified personnel under dual control may load or replace encryption keys in ATM EPPs and POS PIN pads. If PCI SSC extends certified-technician-plus-dual-control requirements from key loading to all EPP/card-reader module replacement, and card networks impose fines on the acquirer for uncertified service, a named certified individual becomes the required signer on a large share of ATM and POS calls.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State ATM skimming statutes (e.g. New York, Florida, California penal provisions on card-reading devices) plus bank regulator guidance could require that any device found with a skimmer be handled by a technician who documents chain of custody and files an attested tamper report. If FinCEN/FFIEC exam guidance formalises that attestation as a named-person record, the report acquires personal exposure.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Banks buying badged, background-checked, bonded in-person technicians specifically because insider cash and skimmer risk makes an anonymous or remote-guided fix unacceptable — already visible in ATM servicing contracts requiring FBI-level background checks and two-person branch access. If insurers writing cash-in-device and fraud-loss coverage make named vetted-technician rosters a condition of coverage, the human-specific premium hardens.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Genuine two-tier structure: consumable swaps, paper-path clearing and re-imaging are being pushed to customer self-service and remote scripts, leaving retrofit and compliance work — EMV/contactless upgrades, ADA voice-guidance retrofits, dispenser recalibration after a jam-and-loss event, forensic teardown of tampered fascias. If the routine tier keeps migrating to branch staff and remote tooling, the residual day is dominated by non-scripted work even though the headcount base shrinks.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Cash-discrepancy adjudication: the technician on site decides whether a shortage is a dispenser fault, a jam-retract, or theft, and that call drives the bank's Reg E provisional-credit and SAR decisions. If bank operating procedures formally designate the technician's on-site finding as the determination of record for dispute resolution rather than an input to an ops team, the role owns the consequential ambiguous call.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Little headroom. The work is already hands-in-chassis in unpredictable branch and back-office settings; the only upward move would be a shift toward heavier vault, safe, and armoured-fascia installation work that requires two-person physical handling.", "plausibility": "unlikely", "would_add": 1 } ], "ceiling_note": "Every lever here concentrates value in a shrinking installed base. ATM fleet counts and office copier volumes are contracting, so even a fully realised liability shield and trust premium raise the score for a smaller number of jobs — the register measures per-worker displacement resistance, not employment level. Realistic ceiling is low-to-mid 60s, and only for the subset of technicians who hold PCI PIN-security certification and bank-side clearances; general copier and office-machine service has no comparable route." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 100580, "wage": 37710 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 102810, "wage": 38480 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 98260, "wage": 39530 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 91930, "wage": 41090 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 86420, "wage": 40970 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 81440, "wage": 44910 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 77580, "wage": 45760 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 73010, "wage": 46860 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 65600, "wage": 47810 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -34.8, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "medical-equipment-repairers", "title": "Medical Equipment Repairers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 64, "median_wage": 61660, "overlap": 83, "skills_to_close": [ "Mathematics", "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Troubleshooting" ] }, { "slug": "automotive-service-technicians-and-mechanics", "title": "Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 67, "median_wage": 50620, "overlap": 82, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Evaluation", "Operation and Control" ] }, { "slug": "motorcycle-mechanics", "title": "Motorcycle Mechanics", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "median_wage": 48580, "overlap": 78, "skills_to_close": [ "Troubleshooting" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }