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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders?
Task-level automation exposure for Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
25%
weighted task index
16 of 16 tasks scored
Median Salary
$46,460 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
11,500 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+1.3%
employment change
1,300 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 36 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$31,250 – $65,500
Highest medians
Utah $65,500
Oklahoma $59,980
New Jersey $59,170
Idaho $57,670
Washington $56,580
Lowest medians
Mississippi $31,250
Maryland $33,540
Florida $34,650
North Carolina $34,830
Alabama $37,790
State figures come from the 51-9191 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 25%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 60%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 0%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 7%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 48/100
Moderate
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
16 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 13%
2 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 7%
1 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 80%
13 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Constituent Tasks
#12607 · Core · 6% automatable
Align and position materials being joined to ensure accurate application of adhesive or heat sealing.
physical manipulation — Aligning parts for assembly needs hands and judgment
Align parts or workpieces to ensure proper assembly.
#12598 · Core · 15% automatable
Adjust machine components according to specifications such as widths, lengths, and thickness of materials and amounts of glue, cement, or adhesive required.
physical manipulation — Hands-on production flow control
Adjust equipment controls to regulate flow of production materials or products.
#12599 · Core · 52% automatable
Monitor machine operations to detect malfunctions and report or resolve problems.
text generation — Notifying maintenance needs is routine messaging
Watch operating equipment to detect malfunctions. Notify others of equipment repair or maintenance needs.
#12604 · Core · 17% automatable
Start machines, and turn valves or move controls to feed, admit, apply, or transfer materials and adhesives, and to adjust temperature, pressure, and time settings.
physical manipulation — Manual temperature control adjustment
Adjust equipment controls to regulate flow of production materials or products. Adjust temperature controls of ovens or other heating equipment.
#12601 · Core · 4% automatable
Fill machines with glue, cement, or adhesives.
physical manipulation — Hands-on loading of materials into equipment
Load materials into production equipment.
#12605 · Core · 30% automatable
Perform test production runs and make adjustments as necessary to ensure that completed products meet standards and specifications.
physical manipulation — Operating production equipment physically on site
Conduct test runs of production equipment.
#12597 · Core · 28% automatable
Examine and measure completed materials or products to verify conformance to specifications, using measuring devices such as tape measures, gauges, or calipers.
physical manipulation — Hands-on dimensional measurement of workpieces
Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.
#12600 · Core · 67% automatable
Read work orders and communicate with coworkers to determine machine and equipment settings and adjustments and supply and product specifications.
information retrieval — Parse specs and materials from orders
Read work orders or other instructions to determine product specifications or materials requirements. Study blueprints or other instructions to determine equipment setup requirements. Exchange information with colleagues.
#12609 · Core · 5% automatable
Remove and stack completed materials or products, and restock materials to be joined.
physical manipulation — Physically extracting parts from production equipment
Stack finished items for further processing or shipment. Remove products or workpieces from production equipment.
#12608 · Core · 30% automatable
Observe gauges, meters, and control panels to obtain information about equipment temperatures and pressures, or the speed of feeders or conveyors.
visual inspection — Instrument monitoring needs physical sensor presence
Monitor instruments to ensure proper production conditions.
#12603 · Core · 82% automatable
Maintain production records such as quantities, dimensions, and thicknesses of materials processed.
data analysis — Record production data into structured logs
Record operational or production data.
#12606 · Core · 15% automatable
Remove jammed materials from machines and readjust components as necessary to resume normal operations.
physical manipulation — Physically clearing jams in machinery
Clear equipment jams.
#12602 · Core · 5% automatable
Mount or load material such as paper, plastic, wood, or rubber in feeding mechanisms of cementing or gluing machines.
physical manipulation — Mounting workpieces is physical loading
Load materials into production equipment. Mount materials or workpieces onto production equipment.
#12611 · Core · 9% automatable
Transport materials, supplies, and finished products between storage and work areas, using forklifts.
situated mobility — Driving forklifts requires real-world navigation and control
Move products, materials, or equipment between work areas. Operate forklifts or other loaders.
#12610 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Clean and maintain gluing and cementing machines, using solutions, lubricants, brushes, and scrapers.
physical manipulation — Physical production equipment maintenance
Clean production equipment. Maintain production or processing equipment.
#12612 · Supplemental · 19% automatable
Measure and mix ingredients to prepare glue.
physical manipulation — Physical measuring and dispensing of ingredients
Measure ingredients or substances to be used in production processes. Mix substances to create chemical solutions.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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