Will AI replace Structural Iron and Steel Workers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
0/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 2% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 7% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 0% of the work
What the job involves
Raise, place, and unite iron or steel girders, columns, and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Read specifications or blueprints to determine the locations, quantities, or sizes of materials required.
Out of reach(17)
- Bolt aligned structural steel members in position for permanent riveting, bolting, or welding into place.
- Connect columns, beams, and girders with bolts, following blueprints and instructions from supervisors.
- Pull, push, or pry structural steel members into approximate positions for bolting into place.
- Fasten structural steel members to hoist cables, using chains, cables, or rope.
- Unload and position prefabricated steel units for hoisting, as needed.
and 12 more
Also called
Steel Erector · Ironworker · Structural Steel Erector · Structural Ironworker · Structural Steel Worker · Iron Worker · Steel Fabricator · Tower Hand
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