Job Check
Lighting Technicians
Set up, maintain, and dismantle light fixtures, lighting control devices, and the associated lighting electrical and rigging equipment used for photography, television, film, video, and live productions. May focus or operate light fixtures, or attach color filters or other lighting accessories.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Assess safety of wiring or equipment set-up to determine the risk of fire or electrical shock.Mostly human for now
- 02Consult with lighting director or production staff to determine lighting requirements.Mostly human for now
- 03Disassemble and store equipment after performances.Mostly human for now
- 04Install color effects or image patterns, such as color filters, onto lighting fixtures.Mostly human for now
- 05Install electrical cables or wire fixtures.Mostly human for now
- 06Load, unload, or position lighting equipment.Mostly human for now
- 07Match light fixture settings, such as brightness and color, to lighting design plans.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Notify supervisors when major lighting equipment repairs are needed.Mostly human for now
- 09Operate manual or automated systems to control lighting throughout productions.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Patch or wire lights to dimmers or other electronic consoles.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 loss16%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 70% 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 68% 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.
- Assess safety of wiring or equipment set-up to determine the risk of fire or electrical shock.
- Consult with lighting director or production staff to determine lighting requirements.
- Disassemble and store equipment after performances.