UK AI Exposure · Skilled trades occupations
Vehicle body builders and repairers
Vehicle body builders and repairers construct and repair the bodies of road vehicles, and fit interior and exterior fittings to vehicle bodies.
- Employees (UK)
- 16k
- Median annual pay
- £34,848
- Exposure score ?
- 0.0/10 Minimal 1.5/10 Minimal strict reading · with tools is 1.5/10 with-tools reading · strict is 0.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £0 £0
Higher exposure than 5% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where we start — flip the toggle to 'With tools' to see what AI plus the right context can compress.
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Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
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Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
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Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Most roles have at least three wedges where AI plus the right tools removes real time. For this role the labelling doesn't surface obvious ones, so we'd start with the highest-stakes tasks below and figure out the AI angle in conversation.
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Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
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Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
-
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Sheet Metal Workers" (47-2211.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 19 tasks · unaided
No tasks here are labelled as something an LLM can do unaided. Switch to 'With tools' above to see what changes when AI is paired with the right context.
Where humans still hold the line
19 of 19 tasks
Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Fasten seams or joints together with welds, bolts, cement, rivets, solder, caulks, metal drive clips, or bonds to assemble components into products or to repair sheet metal items.
Transport prefabricated parts to construction sites for assembly and installation.
Install assemblies, such as flashing, pipes, tubes, heating and air conditioning ducts, furnace casings, rain gutters, or downspouts in supportive frameworks.
Hire, train, or supervise new employees or apprentices.
Lay out, measure, and mark dimensions and reference lines on material, such as roofing panels, using calculators, scribes, dividers, squares, or rulers.
Fabricate or alter parts at construction sites, using shears, hammers, punches, or drills.
Determine project requirements, such as scope, assembly sequences, or required methods or materials, using blueprints, drawings, or written or verbal instructions.
Maneuver completed roofing units into position for installation.
Convert blueprints into shop drawings to be followed in the construction or assembly of sheet metal products.
Select gauges or types of sheet metal or nonmetallic material, according to product specifications.
Shape metal material over anvils, blocks, or other forms, using hand tools.
Verify that heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed, installed, and calibrated in accordance with green certification standards, such as those of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Trim, file, grind, deburr, buff, or smooth surfaces, seams, or joints of assembled parts, using hand tools or portable power tools.
Perform building commissioning activities by completing mechanical inspections of a building's water, lighting, or heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Fasten roof panel edges or machine-made moldings to structures by nailing or welding.
Finish parts, using hacksaws or hand, rotary, or squaring shears.
Tasks via O*NET "Sheet Metal Workers" (47-2211.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 19 tasks · with tools
Determine project requirements, such as scope, assembly sequences, or required methods or materials, using blueprints, drawings, or written or verbal instructions.
Convert blueprints into shop drawings to be followed in the construction or assembly of sheet metal products.
Where humans still hold the line
17 of 19 tasks
Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Fasten seams or joints together with welds, bolts, cement, rivets, solder, caulks, metal drive clips, or bonds to assemble components into products or to repair sheet metal items.
Transport prefabricated parts to construction sites for assembly and installation.
Install assemblies, such as flashing, pipes, tubes, heating and air conditioning ducts, furnace casings, rain gutters, or downspouts in supportive frameworks.
Hire, train, or supervise new employees or apprentices.
Lay out, measure, and mark dimensions and reference lines on material, such as roofing panels, using calculators, scribes, dividers, squares, or rulers.
Fabricate or alter parts at construction sites, using shears, hammers, punches, or drills.
Maneuver completed roofing units into position for installation.
Select gauges or types of sheet metal or nonmetallic material, according to product specifications.
Shape metal material over anvils, blocks, or other forms, using hand tools.
Verify that heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed, installed, and calibrated in accordance with green certification standards, such as those of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Trim, file, grind, deburr, buff, or smooth surfaces, seams, or joints of assembled parts, using hand tools or portable power tools.
Perform building commissioning activities by completing mechanical inspections of a building's water, lighting, or heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Fasten roof panel edges or machine-made moldings to structures by nailing or welding.
Finish parts, using hacksaws or hand, rotary, or squaring shears.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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