Will AI replace Sound Engineering Technicians?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
27/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 44% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 54% of the work
What the job involves
Assemble and operate equipment to record, synchronize, mix, edit, or reproduce sound, including music, voices, or sound effects, for theater, video, film, television, podcasts, sporting events, and other productions.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(8)
- Confer with producers, performers, and others to determine and achieve the desired sound for a production, such as a musical recording or a film.
- Separate instruments, vocals, and other sounds, and combine sounds during the mixing or postproduction stage.
- Report equipment problems and ensure that required repairs are made.
- Mix and edit voices, music, and taped sound effects for live performances and for prerecorded events, using sound mixing boards.
- Keep logs of recordings.
and 3 more
Out of reach(6)
- Regulate volume level and sound quality during recording sessions, using control consoles.
- Record speech, music, and other sounds on recording media, using recording equipment.
- Set up, test, and adjust recording equipment for recording sessions and live performances.
- Prepare for recording sessions by performing such activities as selecting and setting up microphones.
- Synchronize and equalize prerecorded dialogue, music, and sound effects with visual action of motion pictures or television productions, using control consoles.
and 1 more
Also called
Sound Mixer · Recording Engineer · Sound Engineer · Audio Engineer · Sound Editor · Sound Designer · Acoustical Engineer · Disc Recordist
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