Will AI replace Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
3/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 10% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 7% of the work
What the job involves
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(2)
- Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
- Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
Out of reach(28)
- Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
- Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
- Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
- Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
- Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
and 23 more
Also called
Welder Fitter · Brazer · MIG Welder (Metal Inert Gas Welder) · TIG Welder (Tungsten Inert Gas Welder) · Welder · Aluminum Welder · Arc Welder · Certified Maintenance Welder
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