Skip to content
man bot

Craft and related trades workers · code 7127

Air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics

Air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics assemble, install, maintain and repair air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment. Tasks include - (a) interpreting blueprints, drawings and other specifications; (b) assembling, installing and repairing components such as compressors, motors, condensers, evaporators, switches and gauges for air conditioning and refrigeration systems; (c) connecting piping and equipment by bolting, riveting, welding or brazing; (d) testing systems, diagnosing faults and performing routine maintenance or servicing. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Air conditioning equipment mechanic - Refrigeration mechanic Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Plumber and pipe fitter - 7126 - Ventilation pipe fitter - 7126

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 152 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • heating, ventilation, air conditioning (and refrigeration) service engineer

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

79.3
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 20.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 20.7 = 79.3

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

72.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

43.3
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 48.3 · hand skill 43.8 · cramped spaces 38 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 72.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 36.5, while the average is 20.7. 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.

  1. 36.5

    Interpreting blueprints, drawings or other specifications

    Low
  2. 20.8

    Testing systems, diagnosing faults and performing routine maintenance or servicing.

    Very Low
  3. 15.5

    Assembling, installing and repairing components such as compressors, motors, condensers, evaporators, switches and gauges for air conditioning and refrigeration systems

    Very Low
  4. 10

    Connecting piping and equipment by bolting, riveting, welding or brazing

    Very Low

4 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 this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
56
AI does it for you
26

Helping wins by 30 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3421

Compared with similar jobs

There are 65 jobs in the “Craft and related trades workers” group, averaging 83.5. This one is below that.