AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film?

Task-level automation exposure for Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film: 21 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Automation Exposure

34% weighted task index

21 of 21 tasks scored

Median Salary

$74,990 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Low

21,550 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+1.3% employment change

2,500 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 47 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$37,590 – $106,900

Highest medians

California $106,900

Illinois $100,170

District of Columbia $98,300

New York $93,410

Georgia $85,050

Lowest medians

Maine $37,590

Puerto Rico $38,380

West Virginia $43,390

South Dakota $44,160

Hawaii $44,230

State figures come from the 27-4031 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 34%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 48%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 27%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 3%

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 34/100 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

21 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) 20%

5 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 18%

4 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 62%

12 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 →

Emerging & rewritten tasks

Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.

New 05/2025 · AI/SME

Operate drones to capture aerial or unique angle footage for film, television, or video productions.

Constituent Tasks

#4031 · Core · 62% automatable

Compose and frame each shot, applying the technical aspects of light, lenses, film, filters, and camera settings to achieve the effects sought by directors.

decision support — Technical requirements drafted; human owns spec

Determine technical requirements of productions or projects.

#4030 · Core · 18% automatable

Operate television or motion picture cameras to record scenes for television broadcasts, advertising, or motion pictures.

physical manipulation — Camera operation requires physical framing and handling

Operate still or video cameras or related equipment.

#4035 · Core · 6% automatable

Adjust positions and controls of cameras, printers, and related equipment to change focus, exposure, and lighting.

physical manipulation — Physical camera setup

Set up still or video cameras or related equipment.

#4037 · Core · 55% automatable

Confer with directors, sound and lighting technicians, electricians, and other crew members to discuss assignments and determine filming sequences, desired effects, camera movements, and lighting requirements.

interpersonal — Technical detail negotiation is interactive human work

Collaborate with others to determine technical details of productions.

#4032 · Core · 18% automatable

Operate zoom lenses, changing images according to specifications and rehearsal instructions.

physical manipulation — Camera operation requires physical framing and handling

Operate still or video cameras or related equipment.

#4038 · Core · 20% automatable

Observe sets or locations for potential problems and to determine filming and lighting requirements.

visual inspection — Set/exhibit inspection requires physical presence

Inspect sets or exhibits.

#18664 · Core · 25% automatable

Set up and perform live shots for broadcast.

physical manipulation — Broadcast equipment operation is hands-on hardware work

Operate communications, transmissions, or broadcasting equipment.

#4033 · Core · 18% automatable

Use cameras in any of several different camera mounts, such as stationary, track-mounted, or crane-mounted.

physical manipulation — Camera operation requires physical framing and handling

Operate still or video cameras or related equipment.

#18666 · Core · 18% automatable

Test, clean, maintain, and repair broadcast equipment, including testing microphones, to ensure proper working condition.

physical manipulation — Hands-on maintenance of recording/broadcast gear

Maintain recording or broadcasting equipment.

#18663 · Supplemental · 55% automatable

Edit video for broadcast productions, including non-linear editing.

visual inspection — AI assists cuts; editorial and technical judgment human

Edit audio or video recordings.

#4039 · Supplemental · 30% automatable

Instruct camera operators regarding camera setups, angles, distances, movement, and variables and cues for starting and stopping filming.

interpersonal — Coordinating production personnel is live supervisory work

Coordinate activities of production personnel.

#18665 · Supplemental · 28% automatable

Assemble studio sets and select and arrange cameras, film stock, audio, or lighting equipment to be used during filming.

decision support — Prop selection depends on creative and physical context

Select materials or props. Set up still or video cameras or related equipment.

#4046 · Supplemental · 66% automatable

Read and analyze work orders and specifications to determine locations of subject material, work procedures, sequences of operations, and machine setups.

visual inspection — Technical drawing review aided, human verifies

Review details of technical drawings or specifications.

#4044 · Supplemental · 45% automatable

View films to resolve problems of exposure control, subject and camera movement, changes in subject distance, and related variables.

decision support — Content curation aided; editorial accountability human

Manage content of broadcasts or presentations.

#18669 · Supplemental · 25% automatable

Direct studio productions.

interpersonal — Directing live productions requires human leadership

Direct productions or performances.

#4043 · Supplemental · 6% automatable

Set up cameras, optical printers, and related equipment to produce photographs and special effects.

physical manipulation — Physical camera setup

Set up still or video cameras or related equipment.

#4042 · Supplemental · 62% automatable

Read charts and compute ratios to determine variables such as lighting, shutter angles, filter factors, and camera distances.

decision support — Technical requirements drafted; human owns spec

Determine technical requirements of productions or projects.

#18668 · Supplemental · 25% automatable

Set up and operate electric news gathering (ENG) microwave vehicles to gather and edit raw footage on location to send to television affiliates for broadcast.

physical manipulation — Broadcast equipment operation is hands-on hardware work

Operate communications, transmissions, or broadcasting equipment.

#18671 · Supplemental · 85% automatable

Write new scripts for broadcasts.

text generation — Write informational material from brief

Write informational material.

#18670 · Supplemental · 60% automatable

Design graphics for studio productions.

visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human

Create computer-generated graphics or animation.

#18667 · Supplemental · 50% automatable

Stay current with new technologies in the field by reading trade magazines.

information retrieval — Literature scanning aided; hands-on prototyping human

Research new technologies.

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Community Sentiment

Do you agree?

Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?

Method

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

See the full method →

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