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Craft and related trades workers · code 7315

Glass makers, cutters, grinders and finishers

Robotic cutters handle standard glass. Blowing a flask by hand is still a rare skill.

Watching gauges and inspecting products are mostly out of AI's reach. It barely touches ten of the thirteen tasks, including silvering mirrors and cutting optical glass.

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

Glass makers, cutters, grinders and finishers blow, mould, press, cut, trim, grind and polish glass, and shape molten glass according to patterns. Tasks include - (a) heating glass to pliable stage using gas flames or ovens, and rotating glass to heat it uniformly; (b) blowing and bending glass tubing into specified shapes to form scientific apparatus such as flasks, retorts and pipettes; (c) grinding and polishing glass objects or parts to correct defects or to prepare surfaces for further finishing and smoothening and polishing rough edges, using belt sanders or polishing wheels; (d) examining glass stock and finished products and marking or discarding items with defects such as spots, stains, scars, snags, chips, scratches or unacceptable shapes or finishes; (e) reading work orders to determine dimensions, cutting locations and quantities to cut; (f) observing gauges, computer printouts and video monitors to verify specified processing conditions and make adjustments as necessary; (g) positioning patterns or drawings on glass, measuring dimensions, and marking cutting lines, using glass cutting tools and cutting glass along marked outlines or around pattern; (h) setting up, operating and adjusting computerized or robotic glass cutting equipment; (i) inspecting, weighing and measuring products to verify conformity with specifications, using instruments such as micrometers, callipers, magnifiers and rulers; (j) regulating oven temperatures according to glass types to be processed; (k) transferring patterns for individual stained glass parts from full size drawings to pattern paper, using stylus to trace drawings; (l) spraying silver solution on glass to provide mirrored surface, using spray guns; (m) laying out cutting and grinding optical and other glass to specified dimensions and weight for moulding into lens blanks and for use as watch crystals. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Glass blower - Glass cutter - Glass finisher - Glass grinder Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Glass production furnace operator - 8181

  • glass-blower
  • glass beveller

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

81 / 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

128 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 13 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 18.7 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 18.7 = 81.3.

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 72 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?

Glass makers, cutters, grinders and finishers 81

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.

  • Process monitoring with sensors and screens.
  • Measurement and inspection.
  • Computerised cutting.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Blowing and bending glass by hand.
  • Stained glass and decorative work.
  • Spotting defects by eye.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Setting up robotic cutting equipment.
  • Scientific and specialist glassware.
  • Architectural glass for energy efficient buildings.

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

30 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 61 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

72 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?

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 35 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

72 How
hands-on
35 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, less fiddly work

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 6 US jobs .

finger skill 48.2 · hand skill 47.6 · cramped spaces 9.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 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 29, against an average of 19. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 29

    Observing gauges, computer printouts and video monitors to verify specified processing conditions and make adjustments as necessary

    Low
  2. 27

    Inspecting, weighing and measuring products to verify conformance to specifications, using instruments such as micrometers, callipers, magnifiers and rulers

    Low
  3. 25

    Reading work orders to determine dimensions, cutting locations and quantities to cut

    Low
  4. 24

    Regulating oven temperatures according to glass types to be processed

    Very Low
  5. 20

    Examining glass stock and finished products and marking or discarding items with defects such as spots, stains, scars, snags, chips, scratches, or unacceptable shapes or finishes

    Very Low
  6. 18

    Heating glass to pliable stage using gas flames or ovens, and rotating glass to heat it uniformly

    Very Low
  7. 17

    Transferring pattern for individual stained glass parts from full size drawing to pattern paper, using stylus to trace drawings

    Very Low
  8. 15

    Blowing and bending glass tubing into specified shapes to form scientific apparatus such as flasks, retorts and pipettes

    Very Low
  9. 15

    Setting up, operating and adjusting computerized or robotic glass cutting equipment

    Very Low
  10. 14

    Positioning pattern or drawing on glass, measuring dimensions, and marking cutting lines, using glass cutting tools and cutting glass along marked outlines or around pattern

    Very Low
  11. 14

    Grinding and polishing glass objects or parts to correct defects or to prepare surfaces for further finishing and smoothing and polishing rough edges, using belt sander or polishing wheels

    Very Low
  12. 14

    Spraying silver solution on glass to provide mirrored surface, using spray gun

    Very Low
  13. 12

    Laying out cutting and grinding optical and other glass to specified dimensions and weight for moulding into lens blanks and for use as watch crystals.

    Very Low

13 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
61
AI does it for you
30

Sidekick wins, by 31 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 3999

So, should glass makers and finishers be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

Somewhat. Watching process monitors, measuring products and reading work orders are the most exposed tasks, all Low; heating, blowing, cutting and polishing rate Very Low. Computerised and robotic cutting already exists, so hand skills matter most in specialist, scientific and decorative work.

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 84. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →