Professionals · code 2163
Product and garment designers
Product and garment designers design and develop products for manufacture and prepare designs and specifications of products for mass, batch and one-off production. Tasks include - (a) determining the objectives and constraints of the design brief by consulting with clients and stakeholders; (b) formulating design concepts for clothing, textiles, industrial, commercial and consumer products, and jewellery; (c) harmonizing aesthetic considerations with technical, functional, ecological and production requirements; (d) preparing sketches, diagrams, illustrations, plans, samples and models to communicate design concepts; (e) negotiating design solutions with clients, management, and sales and manufacturing staff; (f) selecting, specifying and recommending functional and aesthetic materials, production methods and finishes for manufacture; (g) detailing and documenting the selected design for production; (h) preparing and commissioning prototypes and samples; (i) supervising the preparation of patterns, programmes and tooling, and of the manufacturing process. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Costume designer - Fashion designer - Industrial designer - Jewellery designer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Engine designer - 2144 - Building architect - 2161 - Landscape architect - 2162 - Interior designers - 3432
A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 275 of 427 for holding up against AI.
Also known as
- industrial designer
- textile product developer
- textile colourist
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
against AI Minimal Exposure
AI could take on 35 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 35 = 65
That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.
out of 100
From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs
and cramped
finger skill 40.2 · hand skill 27.7 · cramped spaces 13.6 · averaged
Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on
Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
What this number leaves out This job rates 31.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.
The tasks behind the score
The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.
The task AI could do most of scores 51, while the average is 35. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.
- 51
Detailing and documenting the selected design for production
Medium - 43.5
Preparing sketches, diagrams, illustrations, plans, samples and models to communicate design concepts
Low - 35.3
Determining the objectives and constraints of the design brief by consulting with clients and stakeholders
Low - 35
Harmonizing aesthetic considerations with technical, functional, ecological and production requirements
Low - 35
Negotiating design solutions with clients, management, and sales and manufacturing staff
Low - 33.5
Selecting, specifying and recommending functional and aesthetic materials, production methods and finishes for manufacture
Low - 31.5
Formulating design concepts for clothing, textiles, industrial, commercial and consumer products, and jewellery
Low - 30
Supervising the preparation of patterns, programmes and tooling, and of the manufacturing process.
Low - 20
Preparing and commissioning prototypes and samples
Very Low
9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting
Helped, or replaced?
The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.
One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
- AI helps you
- 71
- AI does it for you
- 39
Helping wins by 32 points.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2323
Compared with similar jobs
There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.3. This one is above that.
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A closer look
There's a written profile for this job, with notes on what changes and what stays human.