Team Assemblers
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 conversations, in-person and hands-on work, about 89% of the time, stays with people.
Work as part of a team having responsibility for assembling an entire product or component of a product. Team assemblers can perform all tasks conducted by the team in the assembly process and rotate through all or most of them, rather than being assigned to a specific task on a permanent basis. May participate in making management decisions affecting the work. Includes team leaders who work as part of the team.
$44,650 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
Reviewed on September 30, 2026: what each task is made of, and what handing it over would ask.
A typical 40-hour week
- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work3 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people36 h
Team Assemblers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 3 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 36 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Review work orders and blueprints (about 2 h, a person checks); Complete production reports (about 1 h); Decide work assignments and procedures (about 1 h, a person checks).
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.
- 7%
- 3%
- 0%
- 26%
- 64%
Anthropic's data does not cover this job.
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.
What handing it over would take, now
The 11% within reach splits by what a model would need. The dates, pace and reliability follow the controls above. Estimates.
of the working time. The material can be handed to a model and the result handed back.
of the working time. The model has to be connected to the system the work lives in.
is conversation short enough by length. This site leaves conversation with people, so it is not in the total.
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 11 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 87% of this job's working time as physical work. For 83% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 79% in a purpose-built cell, 4% in a structured facility. 0.87 of 3, the 193rd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 13%
- No robot shown 4%
- In a purpose-built cell 79%
- In a structured facility 4%
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.
What changes for the people in this job
From the task-by-task review, by the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five. It says which parts of the work stay with people and which change, not whether anyone keeps a job: that depends on decisions no data set can see.
What stays with people
89% of the working time: the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of the tasks.
- Rotate through the production tasks, the hands-on work, 30%
- Supervise and train assemblers, the in-person work, 18%
- Check quality of products and parts, the hands-on work, 10%
- Help produce wiring assemblies, the hands-on work, 9%
- Maintain production equipment, the hands-on work, 6%
- Package finished products, the hands-on work, 5%
What becomes checking the machine
7% of the working time: desk work a model could do by then, in tasks where a mistake costs something or a licensed person signs. A person checks it. Another 3% is desk work that is small if wrong, which can be handed over with lighter checks.
- Review work orders and blueprints, costly if wrong, 4%
- Decide work assignments and procedures, costly if wrong, 3%
What to learn
- The hands-on craft. About 64% of the time is hands-on work, which no model here does; robots are rated separately on this page.
- The conversations. About 26% of the time is conversation and in-person work, which this site leaves with people: listening, explaining, persuading, calming.
- Reviewing work you did not do yourself. The tasks under What becomes checking the machine, where a mistake costs something, stay a person's to check or sign: spotting what a draft gets wrong is a skill of its own.
Your own version of this job: read it against your job description. The headline is free; the full personal report, every task with its timeline and what to learn, is $19 (a sample).
The tasks
Sorted by . 11 tasks from .
| Task | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rotate through all the tasks required in a particular production process.Assembly by hand.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SAR automated control-unit assembly line with eleven KUKA robots (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 30% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Supervise assemblers and train employees on job procedures.Leading and teaching a crew on the floor.Done daily by most who do it. | 18% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | In person 100% | Stays with people |
| Perform quality checks on products and parts.Inspecting parts by hand and eye.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Rapid Machine Operator 'Ed' + Elementary AI vision inspection system (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Provide assistance in the production of wiring assemblies.Assembly by hand.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Review work orders and blueprints to ensure work is performed according to specifications.Reading the order and the drawing; the knowing is the assembler's own.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Documents 50%, in person 50% | 50%Desk part half by now |
| Determine work assignments and procedures.Worked out on the floor with the team.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Documents 50%, in person 50% | 50%Desk part half by now |
| Maintain production equipment and machinery.Hands-on maintenance.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Kawasaki machine-tending robot cells (air blow-off cleaning of fixtures) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.1 h17 min to 2.1 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Package finished products and prepare them for shipment.Packing by hand.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Fallas Visibot-LV (ABB IRB-390 FlexPacker delta robot) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Complete production reports to communicate team production level to management.Counts entered on the production report.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Systems 100% | 100%Half by now |
| Shovel, sweep, or otherwise clean work areas.Cleaning by hand.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Avidbots Neo 2W (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Operate machinery and heavy equipment, such as forklifts.Driving and running equipment, which takes a certified operator.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Seegrid Palion AMRs (autonomous lift trucks, pallet trucks, tow tractors) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 1% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Hands-on 100% | 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. Made of: how the task's time splits among five kinds of doing. Only the documents and systems parts can count as within reach, so a task that is 30% documents can be at most 30% 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.
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers8% now, 8% by 2028
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers9% now, 9% by 2028
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers2% now, 2% by 2028
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers4% now, 4% by 2028
- Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians34% now, 69% by 2028
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians35% now, 53% 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.
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 Team Assemblers 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 Team Assemblers 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: Review work orders and blueprints (50% of the task's time now); Complete production reports (100% of the task's time now); and Decide work assignments and procedures (50% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Team Assemblers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Rotate through the production tasks; Supervise and train assemblers; and Check quality of products and parts. Together such tasks are about 82% of the working time, and the people and body parts of the other tasks stay with people too.
- What should Team Assemblers learn as AI takes on more of the work?
- By the job's own task-by-task review, the first things to learn are the hands-on craft; the conversations; and reviewing work you did not do yourself. By the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five, about 89% of the working time stays with people, 7% becomes checking a model's work and 3% could be handed over with lighter checks. It says which parts of the work change, never whether anyone keeps a job.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Team Assemblers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. 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 Team Assemblers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 87% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 83% of the working time, 4% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.87 of 3. One example: Seegrid Palion AMRs (autonomous lift trucks, pallet trucks, tow tractors) for "operate machinery and forklifts". 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 11 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, reviewed one task at a time on September 30, 2026 for what each is made of (documents, business systems, conversation, in person, hands-on), 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
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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.
The full personal report is $19, to print or save as a PDF: every task with when it comes within reach, which ones your description names, the parts of your description the task list does not cover, what stays with you, what becomes checking the machine and what to learn.