Job Check
Potters, Manufacturing
Operate production machines such as pug mill, jigger machine, or potter's wheel to process clay in manufacture of ceramic, pottery and stoneware products.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Operate gas or electric kilns to fire pottery pieces.Mostly human for now
- 02Mix and apply glazes to pottery pieces, using tools, such as spray guns.Mostly human for now
- 03Raise and shape clay into wares, such as vases and pitchers, on revolving wheels, using hands, fingers, and thumbs.Mostly human for now
- 04Adjust wheel speeds according to the feel of the clay as pieces enlarge and walls become thinner.Mostly human for now
- 05Position balls of clay in centers of potters' wheels, and start motors or pump treadles with feet to revolve wheels.Mostly human for now
- 06Move pieces from wheels so that they can dry.Mostly human for now
- 07Prepare work for sale or exhibition, and maintain relationships with retail, pottery, art, and resource networks that can facilitate sale or exhibition of work.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Attach handles to pottery pieces.Mostly human for now
- 09Press thumbs into centers of revolving clay to form hollows, and press on the inside and outside of emerging clay cylinders with hands and fingers, gradually raising and shaping clay to desired forms and sizes.Mostly human for now
- 10Pack and ship pottery to stores or galleries for retail sale.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 28% 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 83% 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.
- Operate gas or electric kilns to fire pottery pieces.
- Mix and apply glazes to pottery pieces, using tools, such as spray guns.
- Raise and shape clay into wares, such as vases and pitchers, on revolving wheels, using hands, fingers, and thumbs.