Will AI replace Manicurists and Pedicurists?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
6/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 11% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 5% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 11% of the work
What the job involves
Clean and shape customers' fingernails and toenails. May polish or decorate nails.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Schedule client appointments and accept payments.
Within reach(1)
- Maintain supply inventories and records of client services.
Out of reach(16)
- Clean and sanitize tools and work environment.
- Apply undercoat and clear or colored polish onto nails with brush.
- Shape and smooth ends of nails, using scissors, files, or emery boards.
- Prepare customers' nails in soapy water, using swabs, files, and orange sticks.
- Remove previously applied nail polish, using liquid remover and swabs.
and 11 more
Also called
Manicurist · Nail Technician (Nail Tech) · Pedicurist · Fingernail Former · Nail Tech · Fingernail Sculpturer · Fingernail Technician · Fingernail Sculptor
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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