Precision instrument makers
and repairers
Precision instrument makers and repairers make, calibrate, test and repair precision and optical instruments such as barometers, compasses, cameras, calibrators, watches, clocks and chronometers.
- Employees (UK)
- 10k
- Median annual pay
- £37,031
- Exposure score ?
- 1.0/10 Minimal 4.8/10 Moderate strict reading, with tools is 4.8/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £37m £178m
Higher exposure than 55% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
A real share of the task list is within reach, especially drafting, summarising, research and analysis. People in this role who learn to direct AI well will pull ahead of those who do not.
If you are in this role
Treat AI like a capable junior you manage. Where you would hand a task to a junior with a clear brief, AI can do it now. Spend the time you get back on judgement and relationships.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Inspect, test, and measure completed work, using devices such as hand tools or gauges to verify conformance to standards or repair requirements.
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Inspect and monitor work areas, examine tools and equipment, and provide employee safety training to prevent, detect, and correct unsafe conditions or violations of procedures and safety rules.
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Interpret specifications, blueprints, or job orders to construct templates and lay out reference points for workers.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Interpret specifications, blueprints, or job orders to construct templates and lay out reference points for workers.
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Monitor employees' work levels and review work performance.
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Compute estimates and actual costs of factors such as materials, labor, or outside contractors.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers" (49-1011.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 22 tasks, unaided
Develop or implement electronic maintenance programs or computer information management systems.
What still needs a person
21 of 22 tasks
Inspect, test, and measure completed work, using devices such as hand tools or gauges to verify conformance to standards or repair requirements.
Inspect and monitor work areas, examine tools and equipment, and provide employee safety training to prevent, detect, and correct unsafe conditions or violations of procedures and safety rules.
Interpret specifications, blueprints, or job orders to construct templates and lay out reference points for workers.
Monitor employees' work levels and review work performance.
Perform skilled repair or maintenance operations, using equipment such as hand or power tools, hydraulic presses or shears, or welding equipment.
Compute estimates and actual costs of factors such as materials, labor, or outside contractors.
Participate in budget preparation and administration, coordinating purchasing and documentation and monitoring departmental expenditures.
Monitor tool and part inventories and the condition and maintenance of shops to ensure adequate working conditions.
Requisition materials and supplies, such as tools, equipment, or replacement parts.
Confer with personnel, such as management, engineering, quality control, customer, or union workers' representatives, to coordinate work activities, resolve employee grievances, or identify and review resource needs.
Determine schedules, sequences, and assignments for work activities, based on work priority, quantity of equipment, and skill of personnel.
Examine objects, systems, or facilities and analyze information to determine needed installations, services, or repairs.
Counsel employees about work-related issues and assist employees to correct job-skill deficiencies.
Recommend or initiate personnel actions, such as hires, promotions, transfers, discharges, or disciplinary measures.
Investigate accidents or injuries and prepare reports of findings.
Review, evaluate, accept, and coordinate completion of work bid from contractors.
Compile operational or personnel records, such as time and production records, inventory data, repair or maintenance statistics, or test results.
Conduct or arrange for worker training in safety, repair, or maintenance techniques, operational procedures, or equipment use.
Develop, implement, or evaluate maintenance policies and procedures.
Meet with vendors or suppliers to discuss products used in repair work.
Design equipment configurations to meet personnel needs.
Tasks via O*NET "First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers" (49-1011.00).
What AI can already do
18 of 22 tasks, with tools
Interpret specifications, blueprints, or job orders to construct templates and lay out reference points for workers.
Monitor employees' work levels and review work performance.
Compute estimates and actual costs of factors such as materials, labor, or outside contractors.
Participate in budget preparation and administration, coordinating purchasing and documentation and monitoring departmental expenditures.
Monitor tool and part inventories and the condition and maintenance of shops to ensure adequate working conditions.
Requisition materials and supplies, such as tools, equipment, or replacement parts.
Determine schedules, sequences, and assignments for work activities, based on work priority, quantity of equipment, and skill of personnel.
Examine objects, systems, or facilities and analyze information to determine needed installations, services, or repairs.
Counsel employees about work-related issues and assist employees to correct job-skill deficiencies.
Recommend or initiate personnel actions, such as hires, promotions, transfers, discharges, or disciplinary measures.
Investigate accidents or injuries and prepare reports of findings.
Review, evaluate, accept, and coordinate completion of work bid from contractors.
Compile operational or personnel records, such as time and production records, inventory data, repair or maintenance statistics, or test results.
Conduct or arrange for worker training in safety, repair, or maintenance techniques, operational procedures, or equipment use.
Develop, implement, or evaluate maintenance policies and procedures.
Meet with vendors or suppliers to discuss products used in repair work.
Develop or implement electronic maintenance programs or computer information management systems.
Design equipment configurations to meet personnel needs.
What still needs a person
4 of 22 tasks
Inspect, test, and measure completed work, using devices such as hand tools or gauges to verify conformance to standards or repair requirements.
Inspect and monitor work areas, examine tools and equipment, and provide employee safety training to prevent, detect, and correct unsafe conditions or violations of procedures and safety rules.
Perform skilled repair or maintenance operations, using equipment such as hand or power tools, hydraulic presses or shears, or welding equipment.
Confer with personnel, such as management, engineering, quality control, customer, or union workers' representatives, to coordinate work activities, resolve employee grievances, or identify and review resource needs.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Skilled trades occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons