Will AI replace Set and Exhibit Designers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
37/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 59% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 59% of the work
What the job involves
Design special exhibits and sets for film, video, television, and theater productions. May study scripts, confer with directors, and conduct research to determine appropriate architectural styles.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(14)
- Develop set designs, based on evaluation of scripts, budgets, research information, and available locations.
- Prepare rough drafts and scale working drawings of sets, including floor plans, scenery, and properties to be constructed.
- Prepare preliminary renderings of proposed exhibits, including detailed construction, layout, and material specifications, and diagrams relating to aspects such as special effects or lighting.
- Read scripts to determine location, set, and design requirements.
- Submit plans for approval, and adapt plans to serve intended purposes, or to conform to budget or fabrication restrictions.
and 9 more
Out of reach(13)
- Attend rehearsals and production meetings to obtain and share information related to sets.
- Observe sets during rehearsals in order to ensure that set elements do not interfere with performance aspects such as cast movement and camera angles.
- Select set props, such as furniture, pictures, lamps, and rugs.
- Design and build scale models of set designs, or miniature sets used in filming backgrounds or special effects.
- Inspect installed exhibits for conformance to specifications and satisfactory operation of special-effects components.
and 8 more
Also called
Set Decorator · Set Designer · Exhibits Manager · Stage Scenery Designer · Designer · Exhibit Designer · Scenic Designer · Miniature Set Designer
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