{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/mechanical-door-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": "Mechanical Door Repairers", "soc_code": "49-9011", "category": "Trades", "us_employment": 27120, "median_annual_wage": 55720 }, "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 67, "contested": false, "near_boundary": true, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 17, "embodiment": 19, "liability_shield": 7, "trust_premium": 12, "judgment_accountability": 12 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Winding a torsion spring to the right turns on a door whose original hardware nobody documented, then shimming a jamb that settled three inches out of plumb, is trial-and-adjust physical judgment with no digitizable intermediate — the only tasks a model touches are the parts lookup and the invoice, which is why this lands at 17 and not a full 20.", "embodiment": "Ladders, cramped vestibules, live 120V operators, overhead loads under lethal spring tension, freezing loading docks and active traffic doorways in occupied buildings — 19 reflects that every billable minute happens at the door itself, in a space configured by someone else decades ago.", "liability_shield": "There is no door-technician licence in most states; you may hold an electrical or low-voltage card, IDA/AAADM certification for automatic pedestrian doors, and you sign the annual AAADM inspection label — real paperwork, but the building owner and GC carry the exposure, which caps this at 7 rather than the 12+ an electrician's licence would earn.", "trust_premium": "Property managers and facility directors call the tech who already knows which of their forty dock doors has the bad photo-eye and who will come at 6am before the store opens — the repeat service contract is sticky, but the door still gets fixed if a different van shows up, so 12 not 16.", "judgment_accountability": "Deciding whether a fire-rated rolling door needs a drop test or full replacement, whether a cracked cable and worn drum means shut the bay down now, and calling a sensor a life-safety failure on a door thousands of people walk through daily is genuine discretion — but ANSI/DASMA and AAADM procedures and manufacturer specs frame most of those calls, holding this at 12." }, "rationale": "The work is diagnosing and fixing overhead, automatic, and revolving doors in situ — replacing torsion springs, aligning tracks, adjusting sensors and closers, rewiring operators, and cutting and hanging hardware in buildings that are never built the same way twice. None of that is text or screen work, and today's robotics cannot get a 200-pound sectional door off a bent track in a cramped commercial vestibule. AI compresses the paperwork around the job — quoting, scheduling, parts lookup, service write-ups — not the job itself.", "outlook": "Demand holds or grows with commercial building stock and ADA enforcement; the change over ten years is that quoting, scheduling, and diagnostics prompts get software-driven while the wrench work and the inspection signature stay human.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State/municipal adoption of mandatory certification for automatic door inspection and repair — e.g. AAADM (American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers) annual safety inspection already requires a certified inspector's signed sticker, and ANSI/BHMA A156.10/A156.19 compliance is increasingly written into building codes. If a state (Ohio and Washington have floated door-safety licensure after pedestrian entrapment injuries) makes the AAADM certificate a legal precondition for the annual inspection sign-off, with personal liability attaching to the signer, this rises materially.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Insurer requirement: commercial general-liability carriers conditioning coverage for automatic-entrance premises injury claims on documented annual inspection by a named certified technician — already common practice for elevators and fire doors (NFPA 80 requires annual fire-door inspection by a 'qualified person' with a written record). Extension of an NFPA-80-style qualified-person record requirement to all powered pedestrian doors would attach named-human accountability to routine service.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If code or carrier rules make the technician the person who decides whether a door stays in service — authority to red-tag and lock out an entrance that fails sensor or force testing, as elevator inspectors can — the role owns a consequential, contested call against a building owner who wants the door open.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift as low-end work leaves: residential garage-door spring-and-opener swaps are commoditizing toward install-only crews and DIY kits, while the remaining commercial tier is retrofit integration — tying door operators into access control, fire alarm interfaces, and ADA force compliance in buildings with no as-built drawings. Genuine two-tier occupation; if the residential tier is absorbed by lower-skill labor, the surviving job is the diagnostic tier.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Modest route only: torsion-spring injuries and entrapment lawsuits sustain buyer preference for a named, insured, certified technician over an app-dispatched gig installer. IDA (International Door Association) certification marketing and manufacturer authorized-dealer programs are the visible mechanism. No route to a large premium — buyers mostly price-shop.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Already 67 with embodiment near max; the realistic headroom is almost entirely in liability/accountability via door-safety code and insurer inspection regimes. Capability dimensions cannot rise much further and will not fall soon either — the binding risk to this occupation is not AI but door designs with fewer serviceable parts and manufacturer-locked diagnostics that route work to authorized dealers, shrinking the independent trade without automating it." }, "adjudication": { "method": "two independent runs agreed on the verdict", "outcome": "corroborated", "run_totals": [ 67, 67 ], "run_verdicts": [ "SAFE", "SAFE" ] }, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 21010, "wage": 39510 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 22670, "wage": 41010 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 23050, "wage": 41570 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 22680, "wage": 43220 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 23300, "wage": 45060 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 27330, "wage": 47010 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 27800, "wage": 48650 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 27970, "wage": 51050 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 27120, "wage": 55720 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 29.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }