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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners?
Task-level automation exposure for Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners: 24 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
12%
weighted task index
24 of 24 tasks scored
Median Salary
$46,420 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
5,380 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+1.9%
employment change
600 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 34 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$23,980 – $59,570
Highest medians
Michigan $59,570
New Jersey $58,730
Tennessee $58,730
Maryland $55,130
Oregon $54,800
Lowest medians
Mississippi $23,980
Georgia $29,640
Oklahoma $31,160
Arizona $37,850
Indiana $38,440
State figures come from the 49-9063 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 12%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 88%
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 0%
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 14/100
Low
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
24 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) 0%
0 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 0%
0 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 100%
24 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 08/2025 · Occupational Expert
Adjust the neck angle on fretted instruments.
Constituent Tasks
#11866 · Core · 10% automatable
Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices.
physical manipulation — Hands-on equipment adjustment for performance
Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments. Adjust equipment to ensure optimal performance.
#11871 · Core · 17% automatable
Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments.
physical manipulation — Hands-on mechanical testing in physical environment
Test mechanical equipment to ensure proper functioning. Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments.
#11865 · Core · 28% automatable
Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects.
physical manipulation — Hands-on mechanical testing in physical environment
Test mechanical equipment to ensure proper functioning.
#11867 · Core · 8% automatable
Disassemble instruments and parts for repair and adjustment.
physical manipulation — Disassembly requires hands-on tool use
Disassemble equipment for maintenance or repair.
#11873 · Core · 8% automatable
Repair or replace musical instrument parts and components, such as strings, bridges, felts, and keys, using hand and power tools.
physical manipulation — Manual replacement of mechanical parts
Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments. Replace worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts. Repair worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts.
#11870 · Core · 9% automatable
Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary.
physical manipulation — Physical lubrication task requiring hands and access
Reassemble equipment after repair. Lubricate equipment to allow proper functioning.
#11868 · Core · 18% automatable
Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required.
visual inspection — Locating wear and damage requires physical inspection
Inspect mechanical equipment to locate damage, defects, or wear.
#11875 · Core · 8% automatable
Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons.
physical manipulation — Manual repair of worn mechanical parts
Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments. Repair worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts.
#11872 · Core · 15% automatable
String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights.
physical manipulation — Hands-on equipment adjustment for performance
Adjust equipment to ensure optimal performance.
#11869 · Core · 8% automatable
Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons.
physical manipulation — Manual repair of worn mechanical parts
Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments. Repair worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts.
#11874 · Core · 8% automatable
Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools.
physical manipulation — Hand sanding and finishing of physical objects
Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment.
#11877 · Core · 15% automatable
Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair.
physical manipulation — Hands-on mixing of compounds in physical workspace
Prepare compounds or solutions to be used for repairs.
#11878 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments.
physical manipulation — Physical alignment of machinery requires hands
Align equipment or machinery.
#11880 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places.
physical manipulation — Soldering connections needs precise manual work
Solder parts or connections between parts.
#11881 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools.
physical manipulation — Manual dent removal with tools on varied surfaces
Remove dents from equipment, materials, tools or structures.
#11879 · Supplemental · 15% automatable
Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles.
physical manipulation — Hands-on equipment adjustment for performance
Adjust equipment to ensure optimal performance.
#11891 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools.
physical manipulation — Hand sanding and finishing of physical objects
Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment.
#11896 · Supplemental · 17% automatable
Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments.
physical manipulation — Hands-on mechanical testing in physical environment
Test mechanical equipment to ensure proper functioning. Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments.
#11876 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools.
physical manipulation — Part fabrication requires physical machining and handling
Fabricate parts or components.
#11884 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish.
physical manipulation — Refinishing surfaces is skilled manual labor
Refinish wood or metal surfaces.
#11898 · Supplemental · 7% automatable
Assemble and install new pipe organs and pianos in buildings.
physical manipulation — Instrumentation installation requires hands-on wiring
Assemble products or production equipment. Install instrumentation or electronic equipment or systems.
#11885 · Supplemental · 5% automatable
Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use.
situated mobility — Physical travel to sites requires human mobility
Travel to work sites to perform installation, repair or maintenance work.
#11882 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish.
physical manipulation — Cleaning parts for repair needs hands-on dexterity
Clean equipment, parts, or tools to repair or maintain them in good working order.
#11887 · Supplemental · 9% automatable
Refinish and polish piano cabinets or cases to prepare them for sale.
physical manipulation — Refinishing surfaces is skilled manual labor
Polish materials, workpieces, or finished products. Refinish wood or metal surfaces.
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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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