Job Check
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Measure and visually inspect products for surface and dimension defects to ensure conformance to specifications, using precision measuring instruments.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Observe continuous operation of automatic machines to ensure that products meet specifications and to detect jams or malfunctions, making adjustments as necessary.Mostly human for now
- 03Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products.Mostly human for now
- 04Turn valves and dials of machines to regulate pressure, temperature, and speed and feed rates, and to set cycle times.Mostly human for now
- 05Read specifications, blueprints, and work orders to determine setups, temperatures, and time settings required to mold, form, or cast plastic materials, as well as to plan production sequences.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Observe meters and gauges to verify and record temperatures, pressures, and press-cycle times.Mostly human for now
- 07Connect water hoses to cooling systems of dies, using hand tools.Mostly human for now
- 08Remove parts, such as dies, from machines after production runs are finished.Mostly human for now
- 09Perform maintenance work such as cleaning and oiling machines.Mostly human for now
- 10Smooth and clean inner surfaces of molds, using brushes, scrapers, air hoses, or grinding wheels, and fill imperfections with refractory material.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
8%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 18% 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 93% 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.
- Observe continuous operation of automatic machines to ensure that products meet specifications and to detect jams or malfunctions, making adjustments as necessary.
- Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products.
- Turn valves and dials of machines to regulate pressure, temperature, and speed and feed rates, and to set cycle times.