Will AI replace Maintenance and Repair Workers, General?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
8/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 16% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 16% of the work
What the job involves
Perform work involving the skills of two or more maintenance or craft occupations to keep machines, mechanical equipment, or the structure of a building in repair. Duties may involve pipe fitting; HVAC maintenance; insulating; welding; machining; carpentry; repairing electrical or mechanical equipment; installing, aligning, and balancing new equipment; and repairing buildings, floors, or stairs.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(4)
- Diagnose mechanical problems and determine how to correct them, checking blueprints, repair manuals, or parts catalogs, as necessary.
- Design new equipment to aid in the repair or maintenance of machines, mechanical equipment, or building structures.
- Record type and cost of maintenance or repair work.
- Estimate costs to repair machinery, equipment, or building structures.
Out of reach(23)
- Inspect, operate, or test machinery or equipment to diagnose machine malfunctions.
- Adjust functional parts of devices or control instruments, using hand tools, levels, plumb bobs, or straightedges.
- Repair machines, equipment, or structures, using tools such as hammers, hoists, saws, drills, wrenches, or equipment such as precision measuring instruments or electrical or electronic testing devices.
- Perform routine maintenance, such as inspecting drives, motors, or belts, checking fluid levels, replacing filters, or doing other preventive maintenance actions.
- Order parts, supplies, or equipment from catalogs or suppliers.
and 18 more
Also called
Maintenance Mechanic · Building Mechanic · Facilities Technician · Maintenance Engineer · Maintenance Specialist · Maintenance Technician · Maintenance Worker · Building Engineer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics