Will AI replace Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
6/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 12% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 3% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 12% of the work
What the job involves
Design, make, alter, repair, or fit garments.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric.
Within reach(2)
- Measure customers, using tape measures, and record measurements.
- Estimate how much a garment will cost to make, based on factors such as time and material requirements.
Out of reach(19)
- Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines.
- Trim excess material, using scissors.
- Remove stitches from garments to be altered, using rippers or razor blades.
- Measure parts, such as sleeves or pant legs, and mark or pin-fold alteration lines.
- Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings.
and 14 more
Also called
Dressmaker · Corset Fitter · Garment Fitter · Alterations Sewer · Seamstress · Tailor · Appliquer · Cloth Cutter
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