Job Check
Gem and Diamond Workers
Fabricate, finish, or evaluate the quality of gems and diamonds used in jewelry or industrial tools.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Assign polish, symmetry, and clarity grades to stones, according to established grading systems.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Identify and document stones' clarity characteristics, using plot diagrams.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Estimate wholesale and retail value of gems, following pricing guides, market fluctuations, and other relevant economic factors.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Examine gems during processing to ensure accuracy of angles and positions of cuts or bores, using magnifying glasses, loupes, or shadowgraphs.Mostly human for now
- 05Examine diamonds or gems to ascertain the shape, cut, and width of cut stones, or to select the cuts that will result in the biggest, best quality stones.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Examine gem surfaces and internal structures, using polariscopes, refractometers, microscopes, and other optical instruments, to differentiate between stones, to identify rare specimens, or to detect flaws, defects, or peculiarities affecting gem values.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Advise customers and others on the best use of gems to create attractive jewelry items.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Locate and mark drilling or cutting positions on stones or dies, using diamond chips and power hand tools.Mostly human for now
- 09Secure gems or diamonds in holders, chucks, dops, lapidary sticks, or blocks for cutting, polishing, grinding, drilling, or shaping.Mostly human for now
- 10Select shaping wheels for tasks, and mix and apply abrasives, bort, or polishing compounds.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
23%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 35% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 80% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Examine gems during processing to ensure accuracy of angles and positions of cuts or bores, using magnifying glasses, loupes, or shadowgraphs.
- Locate and mark drilling or cutting positions on stones or dies, using diamond chips and power hand tools.
- Secure gems or diamonds in holders, chucks, dops, lapidary sticks, or blocks for cutting, polishing, grinding, drilling, or shaping.