Gem and Diamond Workers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 11% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 89% of the time, stays with people.
Fabricate, finish, or evaluate the quality of gems and diamonds used in jewelry or industrial tools.
$52,540 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on4 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people36 h
Gem and Diamond Workers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 4 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 36 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Estimate wholesale and retail value of gems, following pricing guides, market fluctuations, and other relevant economic factors (about 4 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 11%
- 6%
- 83%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 10%. Today's estimate: 11%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 22 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 89% of this job's working time as physical work. For 89% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 89% in a purpose-built cell. 0.89 of 3, the 185th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 11%
- In a purpose-built cell 89%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examine gem surfaces and internal structures, using polariscopes, refractometers, microscopes, and other optical instruments, to differentiate between stones, to identify rare specimens, or to detect flaws, defects, or peculiarities affecting gem values.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sarine Clarity / DiaMension / eGrading (Sarine Technology Lab) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 14% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Estimate wholesale and retail value of gems, following pricing guides, market fluctuations, and other relevant economic factors.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Examine diamonds or gems to ascertain the shape, cut, and width of cut stones, or to select the cuts that will result in the biggest, best quality stones.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sarine DiaMension AXIOM (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 25 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Examine gems during processing to ensure accuracy of angles and positions of cuts or bores, using magnifying glasses, loupes, or shadowgraphs.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, DiaMension AXIOM (Sarine Technologies) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 17 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Advise customers and others on the best use of gems to create attractive jewelry items.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Hold stones, gems, dies, or styluses against rotating plates, wheels, saws, or slitters to cut, shape, slit, grind, or polish them.Done several times a day by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Dialit GS7000-E automatic full-cut polishing machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Lap girdles on rough diamonds, using diamond girdling lathes.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 42 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Identify and document stones' clarity characteristics, using plot diagrams.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sarine Clarity / Clarity-II (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 21 min8 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Place stones in clamps on polishing machines and polish facets of stones, using felt-covered or canvas-covered polishing wheels and polishing compounds such as tripoli and rouge.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort rough diamonds into categories based on shape, size, color, and quality.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, DVI Rough Diamond Classifier and Diamond Weighing Machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Split gems along pre-marked lines to remove imperfections, using blades and jewelers' hammers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Assign polish, symmetry, and clarity grades to stones, according to established grading systems.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sarine Clarity-II (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers25% now, 25% by 2028
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand11% now, 11% by 2028
- Etchers and Engravers21% now, 21% by 2028
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners6% now, 6% by 2028
- Stone Cutters and Carvers, Manufacturing5% now, 5% by 2028
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic10% now, 10% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
- Jewelry, Luggage, and Leather Goods Retailers11,740 people
- Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing5,080 people
- Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods (4232, 4233, 4235, 4236, 4237, and 4239 only)2,100 people
- Personal and Household Goods Repair and Maintenance1,210 people
- Management of Companies and Enterprises380 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Gem and Diamond Workers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 11% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 11% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Gem and Diamond Workers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Estimate wholesale and retail value of gems, following pricing guides, market fluctuations, and other relevant economic factors (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Gem and Diamond Workers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Examine gem surfaces and internal structures, using polariscopes, refractometers, microscopes, and other optical instruments, to differentiate between stones, to identify rare specimens, or to detect flaws, defects, or peculiarities affecting gem values; Examine diamonds or gems to ascertain the shape, cut, and width of cut stones, or to select the cuts that will result in the biggest, best quality stones; and Examine gems during processing to ensure accuracy of angles and positions of cuts or bores, using magnifying glasses, loupes, or shadowgraphs. Together such tasks are about 89% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Gem and Diamond Workers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Gem and Diamond Workers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 89% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 89% of the working time. Its index is 0.89 of 3. One example: Sarine Clarity / DiaMension / eGrading (Sarine Technology Lab) for "examine gem surfaces and internal structures, using polariscopes, refractometers, microscopes, and other optical instruments, to differentiate between stones, to identify rare specimens, or to detect flaws, defects, or peculiarities affecting gem values". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 22 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
This job in your state or metro area
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
This occupation has not been reviewed task by task yet, so the full personal report is not offered for it; 402 of 923 occupations are reviewed so far, largest first.