{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/precision-instrument-and-equipment-repairers-all-other/", "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": "Precision Instrument and Equipment Repairers, All Other", "soc_code": "49-9069", "category": "Trades", "us_employment": 9400, "median_annual_wage": 68990 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 62, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 16, "embodiment": 18, "liability_shield": 6, "trust_premium": 9, "judgment_accountability": 13 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Stripping a spectrometer's optical bench, finding a 0.2° mirror misalignment, and re-shimming it against a traceable standard is a sequence no model can execute and no arm can improvise on a one-off instrument — the 16 rather than 19 reflects that diagnostic decision trees, manual lookup, and parts sourcing are already moving to software, and sealed modules keep shaving off the repair end.", "embodiment": "You are inside the housing with jeweler's screwdrivers, torque specs, alignment lasers and a scope probe, often at the customer's plant floor or lab bench where the instrument sits — 18 not 20 only because much of the fine work happens on a controlled bench rather than up a tower or in a trench.", "liability_shield": "No state licence gates this work; ASQ CCT, NIST-traceable training or an employer's ISO 17025 accreditation is what buys you credibility, and when a calibration is later found out of tolerance the accredited lab and its quality manager absorb it, not your signature on the cert.", "trust_premium": "Labs and plant engineers keep calling the tech who knows their particular 15-year-old mass spec and will pick up when it drifts mid-run, but the purchase order is written for turnaround time and traceability, so a competent replacement keeps the account.", "judgment_accountability": "You decide whether drift is a failing detector or a contaminated sample path, whether an out-of-tolerance instrument's prior measurements must be recalled, and whether to repair or condemn a $200k asset — real calls with expensive consequences, held under 14 because tolerance limits, manufacturer specs, and calibration intervals are written down before you arrive." }, "rationale": "This catch-all bucket covers people who calibrate, align, and repair scientific, industrial, and specialty instruments — spectrometers, gauges, optical assemblies, sensors, timing and measurement equipment — using hand tools, test benches, and traceable standards. Almost none of that is text-on-a-screen work: the value is in disassembling a one-off instrument, finding drift or a failed component, and bringing it back inside tolerance, which today's robotics cannot touch. The soft spots are the paperwork layer — diagnostic lookup, calibration certificates, service reports, parts research — plus the slow trend toward sealed, module-swap instruments that turn skilled repair into replacement.", "outlook": "Employment stays small and stable; AI absorbs the manuals-and-certificates half of the day while the hands-on alignment, calibration, and on-site diagnosis half remains firmly human, with the best pay going to those tied to regulated, traceable measurement.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation regimes (and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 / GMP audit expectations) tightening so that calibration certificates for regulated instruments must carry a named, competence-assessed technician's signature who is personally attestable in an audit — as already happens in ANAB/A2LA assessments of signatory authority. Extension of named-signatory requirements to AI-generated calibration reports, or an aviation-style certifying-staff license (EASA Part-145 model) applied to test-and-measurement labs, would move this most.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Nuclear, defense, and pharma prime contractors writing flowdown clauses requiring human-witnessed as-found/as-left readings on M&TE used for product acceptance (NQA-1, AS9100 measurement traceability clauses already gesture at this).", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: if AI absorbs the diagnostic lookup, parts research, certificate generation, and uncertainty-budget arithmetic, the residual role is one-off legacy and custom instruments with no service documentation — the tier where the work is inherently non-routine. This occupation genuinely has two tiers, and the routine one is the paperwork.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Out-of-tolerance decisions carrying explicit reverse-traceability obligations: the technician's call on whether prior measurements made with a drifted instrument require product recall or retest. Formalizing that call as a named-person determination in quality manuals (already common in FDA-regulated labs) raises the consequence weight of the role.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Narrow route only: OEM-authorized service networks for high-value scientific instruments (mass spec, metrology-grade optics) where the manufacturer warranty voids unless a factory-trained human performs the service. This is a manufacturer commercial policy, not a general buyer preference for humans, and it protects a subset of workers.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is already near ceiling at 18 and cannot meaningfully rise. The dominant threat here is not AI capability but the sealed-module design trend, which no liability or trust lever offsets: if instruments become non-repairable, the licensed signature attaches to a swap, not a repair, and headcount falls regardless of dimension scores. Realistic ceiling roughly 72-75, concentrated in accredited-lab and regulated-industry segments; field service on commodity sealed instruments has no route up." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 12010, "wage": 56940 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 10930, "wage": 57610 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 10570, "wage": 58720 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 10100, "wage": 61420 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 11110, "wage": 57670 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 10810, "wage": 61690 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 10330, "wage": 62040 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 9680, "wage": 67080 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 9400, "wage": 68990 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -21.7, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }