Terrazzo Workers and Finishers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 3% 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 97% of the time, stays with people.
Apply a mixture of cement, sand, pigment, or marble chips to floors, stairways, and cabinet fixtures to fashion durable and decorative surfaces.
1,180 people do this job in the US. $76,170 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people39 h
Terrazzo Workers and Finishers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 39 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Modify mixing, grouting, grinding, or cleaning procedures, according to type of installation or material used (about 1 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.
- 3%
- 0%
- 97%
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, 3%. Today's estimate: 3%.
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
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 26 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0031% to none (released February and March 2025); 0.003% to 0.0041% (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0031% | 652 of 708 | 1 of 26 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 26 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.003% | 587 of 655 | 1 of 26 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.0056% | 566 of 672 | 2 of 26 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.0041% | 592 of 677 | 1 of 26 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 26 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 26 |
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 99% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 73% in a purpose-built cell, 26% in a structured facility. 1.25 of 3, the 49th highest of the 923 jobs.
- No robot shown 1%
- In a purpose-built cell 73%
- In a structured facility 26%
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 . 26 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grind surfaces with a power grinder, or polish surfaces with polishing or surfacing machines.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Husqvarna Autogrinder 8 D (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 24% | 1.7 h38 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Spread, level, or smooth concrete or terrazzo mixtures to form bases or finished surfaces, using rakes, shovels, hand or power trowels, hand or power screeds, or floats.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Vollert VARIO SMOOTH trowelling machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Grind curved surfaces or areas inaccessible to surfacing machine, such as stairways or cabinet tops, with portable hand grinder.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ABB robot + FerRobotics Active Angular Kit AAK 617 Concrete (accell integration) at STS Fertigteile (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Cut metal division strips and press them into the terrazzo base for joints or changes of color to form designs or patterns or to help prevent cracks.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, LiSEC VSA-A flexible spacer applicator (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Clean installation site, mixing and storage areas, tools, machines, and equipment, and store materials and equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, FANUC M-410 series palletizing robot (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Blend marble chip mixtures, place into panels, and push a roller over the surface to embed the chips.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Qunfeng QPV600K Terrazzo Tile Production Line (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure designated amounts of ingredients for terrazzo or grout, according to standard formulas and specifications, using graduated containers and scales, and load ingredients into portable mixer.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Automatic concrete batching plant equipment (overhead bins, load-cell weigh hoppers, water meters) per MnDOT Concrete Manual 5-694.411 (Minnesota Department of Transportation) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Wash polished terrazzo surface, using cleaner and water, and apply sealer and curing agent according to manufacturer's specifications, using brush or sprayer.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Avidbots Neo 2W (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Modify mixing, grouting, grinding, or cleaning procedures, according to type of installation or material used.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Mold expansion joints and edges, using edging tools, jointers, or straightedges.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, EBAWE / Progress Group shuttering & deshuttering robot (ebos control) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Move terrazzo installation materials, tools, machines, or work devices to work areas, manually or using wheelbarrow.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Seegrid AMRs (Tow Tractor, RS1 Lift Truck, Pallet Truck) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Chip, scrape, or grind high spots, ridges, or rough projections to finish concrete, using pneumatic chisel, hand chisel, or other hand tools.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Scan+Grind cell (ABB robot + FerRobotics AAK 617 Concrete, accell integration) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | 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.
- Tile and Stone Setters4% now, 4% by 2028
- Helpers--Brickmasons, Blockmasons, Stonemasons, and Tile and Marble Setters6% now, 6% by 2028
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles3% now, 3% by 2028
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Stonemasons0% now, 0% by 2028
- Brickmasons and Blockmasons8% now, 8% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Terrazzo Workers and Finishers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 3% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 3% 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 Terrazzo Workers and Finishers 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: Modify mixing, grouting, grinding, or cleaning procedures, according to type of installation or material used (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Terrazzo Workers and Finishers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Grind surfaces with a power grinder, or polish surfaces with polishing or surfacing machines; Spread, level, or smooth concrete or terrazzo mixtures to form bases or finished surfaces, using rakes, shovels, hand or power trowels, hand or power screeds, or floats; and Grind curved surfaces or areas inaccessible to surfacing machine, such as stairways or cabinet tops, with portable hand grinder. Together such tasks are about 97% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Terrazzo Workers and Finishers?
- 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 Terrazzo Workers and Finishers?
- 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 99% of the working time, 26% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.25 of 3. One example: Husqvarna Autogrinder 8 D for "grind surfaces with a power grinder, or polish surfaces with polishing or surfacing machines". 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 26 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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