Paperhangers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 0% 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 100% of the time, stays with people.
Cover interior walls or ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, or attach advertising posters on surfaces such as walls and billboards. May remove old materials or prepare surfaces to be papered.
1,570 people do this job in the US. $52,140 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people40 h
Paperhangers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 40 hours stay with people.
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.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
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, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
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 19 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 100% of this job's working time as physical work. For 73% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 49% in a purpose-built cell, 23% in a structured facility. 0.96 of 3, the 141st highest of the 923 jobs.
- No robot shown 27%
- In a purpose-built cell 49%
- In a structured facility 23%
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 . 19 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cover interior walls and ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, using hand tools.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 61% | 5 h2.5 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Remove old paper, using water, steam machines, or solvents and scrapers.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.7 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure surfaces or review work orders to estimate the quantities of materials needed.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Okibo EG7 / EG7+ finishing robot (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Check finished wallcoverings for proper alignment, pattern matching, and neatness of seams.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, CarPaintVision (ISRA VISION / Atlas Copco) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Place strips or sections of paper on surfaces, aligning section edges and patterns.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 13 min7 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Set up equipment, such as pasteboards and scaffolds.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, NTU Singapore dual-arm IKEA chair assembly robot (Pham Quang Cuong lab) (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Apply sizing to seal surfaces and maximize adhesion of coverings to surfaces.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Okibo EG7 (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 33 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure and cut strips from rolls of wallpaper or fabric, using shears or razors.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Fotoba XLD 170 WP (Dreamcut XLD) automatic X/Y cutter (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Mark vertical guidelines on walls to align strips, using plumb bobs and chalk lines.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, WEINMANN WALLTEQ M-500 multifunction bridge (marking ballpoint pen / marking inkjet printer units) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Apply adhesives to the backs of paper strips, using brushes, or dunk strips of prepasted wallcovering in water, wiping off any excess adhesive.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, KLASS (Kyokuto Sanki) automatic wallpaper pasting machines (Hi-beta ATHLEAD X, Hi-beta UNI, Prime series) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Fill holes, cracks, and other surface imperfections preparatory to covering surfaces.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Canvas drywall finishing robot (1550 / 1200CX) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Trim excess material at ceilings or baseboards, using knives.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Yaskawa Motoman EcoTrim 1000 ultrasonic cutting workcell (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 10 min4 min to 21 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.
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles3% now, 3% by 2028
- Carpet Installers17% now, 17% by 2028
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Painters, Construction and Maintenance3% now, 3% by 2028
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Tile and Stone Setters4% now, 4% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Paperhangers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 0% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 0% 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 Paperhangers come within reach first?
- No task has a meaningful share of its time within reach now or by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five: the work is mostly people work and body work, which the site does not count.
- Which tasks of Paperhangers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Cover interior walls and ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, using hand tools; Remove old paper, using water, steam machines, or solvents and scrapers; and Measure surfaces or review work orders to estimate the quantities of materials needed. Together such tasks are about 100% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Paperhangers?
- 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 Paperhangers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 100% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 73% of the working time, 23% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.96 of 3. One example: Okibo EG7 / EG7+ finishing robot for "measure surfaces or review work orders to estimate the quantities of materials needed". 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 19 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.
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