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Craft and related trades workers · code 7211

Metal moulders and coremakers

Software can simulate the casting. Making the mould is still foundry work.

AI barely touches any of the seven tasks, from making cores and moulds by hand to cutting runner holes and lifting out patterns.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Metal moulders and coremakers make moulds and cores for casting metal. Tasks include - (a) making moulds by hand or using auxiliary machines on a bench for small metal castings, on the foundry floor, or in a pit for large castings; (b) making cores for use in metal moulds; (c) cleaning and smoothing moulds, core boxes, and repairing surface imperfections; (d) moving and positioning work pieces such as mould sections, patterns and bottom boards, using cranes, or signalling others to move work pieces; (e) positioning patterns inside mould sections and clamping sections together; (f) cutting spouts, runner holes and sprue holes into moulds; (g) lifting upper mould sections from lower sections and remove moulded patterns. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Coremaker - Metal casting moulder

  • foundry operative

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

87 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

53 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 13.4 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 13.4 = 86.6.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 71 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Metal moulders and coremakers 87

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Casting simulation to predict defects.
  • 3D-printed patterns and moulds.
  • Production records.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Making and repairing moulds by hand.
  • Handling heavy moulds safely.
  • Spotting defects before the pour.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Working with 3D-printed sand moulds.
  • Quality inspection with scanners.
  • Lower-energy foundry processes.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

18 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 52 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

71 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

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.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 40 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

71 How
hands-on
40 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 47.3 · cramped spaces 30.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+

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 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 15, against an average of 13. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 15

    Making cores for use in metal moulds

    Very Low
  2. 14

    Making moulds by hand or using auxiliary machines on a bench for small metal castings, on the foundry floor, or in a pit for large castings

    Very Low
  3. 14

    Positioning patterns inside mould sections and clamping sections together

    Very Low
  4. 14

    Cleaning and smoothing moulds, core boxes, and repairing surface imperfections

    Very Low
  5. 13

    Moving and positioning work pieces such as mould sections, patterns, and bottom boards, using cranes, or signalling others to move work pieces

    Very Low
  6. 13

    Lifting upper mould sections from lower sections and remove moulded patterns.

    Very Low
  7. 12

    Cutting spouts, runner holes and sprue holes into moulds

    Very Low

7 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
52
AI does it for you
18

Sidekick wins, by 34 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 3221

So, should metal moulders be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. Every task rates Very Low. Foundries use more simulation and 3D-printed moulds, which changes some work, but moulding, positioning and repairing moulds stays hands-on.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 65 jobs in the “Craft and related trades workers” family, averaging 83. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →