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Craft and related trades workers · code 7412

Electrical mechanics and fitters

Software can test the circuit. Fitting the lift motor is still hands-on.

Inspecting and testing electrical products is mostly out of AI's reach. It barely touches six of the seven tasks, including installing and repairing equipment and lifts.

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

Electrical mechanics and fitters fit, adjust, install and repair electrical machinery and other electrical apparatus and equipment in buildings, factories, motor vehicles, workshops or other places. Tasks include - (a) fitting, adjusting and repairing various kinds of electrical machinery and motors, generators, switchgear and control apparatus, instruments, or electrical parts of elevators and related equipment; (b) fitting, adjusting and repairing electrical parts in domestic appliances, industrial machines and other appliances; (c) inspecting and testing manufactured electrical products; (d) installing, testing, connecting, commissioning, maintaining and modifying electrical equipment, wiring and control systems; (e) designing, installing, maintaining, servicing and repairing electricand hydraulic passenger and freight lifts, escalators, moving walkways and other lift equipment; (f) connecting electrical systems to the power supply; (g) replacing and repairing defective parts. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Armature builder - Automotive electrician - Electrical generator fitter - Electrical mechanic - Lift mechanic Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Electronics mechanic - 7421 - Electrical equipment assembler - 8212

  • rolling stock electrician
  • automotive battery technician
  • marine electrician
  • ground lighting officer
  • lift engineer
  • mining electrician
  • automotive electrician
  • ride technician
  • wind turbine technician
  • household appliances repair technician
  • electrical mechanic
  • power tool repair technician

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

83 / 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

102 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 17.4 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 17.4 = 82.6.

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 67 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?

Electrical mechanics and fitters 83

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.

  • Automated testing and inspection.
  • Diagnostic software.
  • Maintenance records.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Installing and repairing equipment on site.
  • Working safely with high voltages.
  • Fault-finding when the manual doesn't help.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • EV and battery systems.
  • Smart building and lift controls.
  • Renewable energy equipment.

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

20 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 58 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

67 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 52 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

67 How
hands-on
52 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 13 US jobs , so treat it as rough.

finger skill 49.6 · hand skill 46.7 · cramped spaces 60.4 · 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 28, against an average of 17. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 28

    Inspecting and testing manufactured electrical products

    Low
  2. 21

    Installing, testing, connecting, commissioning, maintaining and modifying electrical equipment, wiring and control systems

    Very Low
  3. 16

    Fitting, adjusting and repairing electrical parts in domestic appliances, industrial machines and other appliances

    Very Low
  4. 16

    Fitting, adjusting and repairing various kinds of electrical machinery and motors, generators, switchgear and control apparatus, instruments, or electrical parts of elevators and related equipment

    Very Low
  5. 14

    Connecting electrical systems to power supply

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Replacing and repairing defective parts.

    Very Low
  7. 14

    Designing, installing, maintaining, servicing and repairing electric and hydraulic passenger and freight lifts, escalators, moving walkways and other lift equipment

    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
58
AI does it for you
20

Sidekick wins, by 38 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. 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 3211, 3411

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up 0.03% of all the conversations: a tiny slice, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

81
19

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 3 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should electrical fitters be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. The most exposed task is inspecting and testing products, rated Low; installing, maintaining and repairing electrical equipment rate Very Low. Diagnostic tools help, and electrification keeps this work in demand.

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 →