Trade jobs safe from AI: 20 skilled trades with lower AI exposure
Hands-on trades have the lowest generative-AI exposure of any work in the economy. In Microsoft's 2025 study, floor sanders, rail-track layers and hazardous-materials removal workers sit at or near the very bottom of 785 occupations. A chatbot can't hang a window, set a rail tie or seal off asbestos.
That 27/100 is the average for the roles on this list. What's yours?
Experience moves this number a long way in both directions, and it is the only thing about you we cannot read off this page. Answer two questions and GPT-4o writes you the 3 moves that keep you on the safe side of this, the skills gap for each, and a 90-day plan — free, in about 30 seconds.
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New · every week
New remote roles in your field — with each one's AI-exposure score — every week
10–15 remote postings from the past week, picked from company career pages and the Himalayas and Jobicy boards. Each shows how exposed the occupation is to AI, from Microsoft's 2025 study of 785 jobs. You apply on the original posting.
Our risk score
27–58/100
Microsoft exposure
p0–p44
BLS median pay
$47,450–$79,920
But the trades story has a second half, and most lists of trades skip it. Our own risk score also counts robotics and process automation, not just chat tools. On that measure, a lot of famous trades score high. Carpentry, roofing, welding and bricklaying all involve repetitive physical tasks that factory-built components, robotic layout and prefab are already absorbing.
So this list only keeps trades that clear both bars: below-median exposure on Microsoft's measure, and under 60 on ours. What's left skews toward repair, installation in awkward real-world spaces, and supervising crews. That work changes every time you show up, which is what automation handles worst. Supervisors top the list, and that's a real career path: running a crew is a trade skill that compounds.
How this list was built
Every occupation our database files under Construction or Installation & Maintenance, kept only if Microsoft's AI applicability percentile is 50 or lower and our risk score is under 60, then ranked by our risk score, lowest first.
Each role shows two different numbers. Our risk score (0–100) is the one on its job page. AI applicability comes from Microsoft's 2025 study of Copilot use across 785 occupations. Lower means less exposure on both. Neither one is a promise about any single job.
The list
1.Solar Energy Installation Managers
Risk: 27/100- AI applicability 0.11: the 37th percentile of 785 occupations (score for its occupation group)
- BLS median pay: $79,920
Direct work crews installing residential or commercial solar photovoltaic or thermal systems.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Supervise solar installers, technicians, and subcontractors for solar installation projects to ensure compliance with safety standards.
- AI applicability 0.11: the 37th percentile of 785 occupations (score for its occupation group)
- BLS median pay: $79,920
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of construction or extraction workers.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Read specifications, such as blueprints, to determine construction requirements or to plan procedures.
Full breakdown for First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers →
- AI applicability 0.13: the 44th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $79,860
Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of mechanics, installers, and repairers.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Interpret specifications, blueprints, or job orders to construct templates and lay out reference points for workers.
Full breakdown for First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers →
4.Glaziers
Risk: 47/100- AI applicability 0.05: the 13th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $57,080
Install glass in windows, skylights, store fronts, and display cases, or on surfaces, such as building fronts, interior walls, ceilings, and tabletops.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Install pre-assembled metal or wood frameworks for windows or doors to be fitted with glass panels, using hand tools.
5.Carpet Installers
Risk: 47/100- AI applicability 0.06: the 17th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $50,340
Lay and install carpet from rolls or blocks on floors.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Install carpet on some floors using adhesive, following prescribed method.
6.Floor Sanders and Finishers
Risk: 48/100- AI applicability 0.00: the very bottom of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $50,440
Scrape and sand wooden floors to smooth surfaces using floor scraper and floor sanding machine, and apply coats of finish.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Providing empathy and emotional support
7.Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
Risk: 48/100- AI applicability 0.04: the 7th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $56,460
Apply blocks, strips, or sheets of shock-absorbing, sound-deadening, or decorative coverings to floors.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Lay out, position, and apply shock-absorbing, sound-deadening, or decorative coverings to floors, walls, and cabinets, following guidelines to keep courses straight and create designs.
Full breakdown for Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles →
- AI applicability 0.10: the 35th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $48,420
Install, diagnose, or repair communications, sound, security, or navigation equipment in motor vehicles.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Install equipment and accessories, such as stereos, navigation equipment, communication equipment, and security systems.
Full breakdown for Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles →
9.Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers
Risk: 52/100- AI applicability 0.12: the 43rd percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $52,600
Install, repair, or adjust audio or television receivers, stereo systems, camcorders, video systems, or other electronic entertainment equipment in homes or other venues.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Install, service, and repair electronic equipment or instruments such as televisions, radios, and videocassette recorders.
Full breakdown for Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers →
10.Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
Risk: 53/100- AI applicability 0.00: the very bottom of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $70,070
Lay, repair, and maintain track for standard or narrow-gauge railroad equipment used in regular railroad service or in plant yards, quarries, sand and gravel pits, and mines.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Operate single- or multiple-head spike driving machines to drive spikes into ties and secure rails.
Full breakdown for Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators →
11.Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers
Risk: 53/100- AI applicability 0.08: the 26th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $47,450
Install, service, adjust, or repair coin, vending, or amusement machines including video games, juke boxes, pinball machines, or slot machines.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Order parts needed for machine repairs.
Full breakdown for Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers →
12.Hazardous Materials Removal Workers
Risk: 54/100- AI applicability 0.02: the 4th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $49,450
Identify, remove, pack, transport, or dispose of hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead-based paint, waste oil, fuel, transmission fluid, radioactive materials, or contaminated soil.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Build containment areas prior to beginning abatement or decontamination work.
13.Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons
Risk: 54/100- AI applicability 0.09: the 31st percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $61,290
Build or repair equipment such as furnaces, kilns, cupolas, boilers, converters, ladles, soaking pits, and ovens, using refractory materials.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Reline or repair ladles and pouring spouts with refractory clay, using trowels.
Full breakdown for Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons →
- AI applicability 0.12: the 40th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $63,520
Repair, install, or maintain mobile or stationary radio transmitting, broadcasting, and receiving equipment, and two-way radio communications systems used in cellular telecommunications, mobile broadband, ship-to-shore, aircraft-to-ground communications, and radio equipment in service and emergency vehicles.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Inspect completed work to ensure all hardware is tight, antennas are level, hangers are properly fastened, proper support is in place, or adequate weather proofing has been installed.
Full breakdown for Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairers →
15.Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers
Risk: 56/100- AI applicability 0.03: the 4th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $47,630
Replace or repair broken windshields and window glass in motor vehicles.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Allow all glass parts installed with urethane ample time to cure, taking temperature and humidity into account.
Full breakdown for Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers →
16.Millwrights
Risk: 56/100- AI applicability 0.06: the 17th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $65,700
Install, dismantle, or move machinery and heavy equipment according to layout plans, blueprints, or other drawings.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Conduct preventative maintenance and repair, and lubricate machines and equipment.
- AI applicability 0.12: the 40th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $61,010
Install or repair heating, central air conditioning, HVAC, or refrigeration systems, including oil burners, hot-air furnaces, and heating stoves.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Study blueprints, design specifications, or manufacturers' recommendations to ascertain the configuration of heating or cooling equipment components and to ensure the proper installation of components.
Full breakdown for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers →
18.Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Risk: 57/100- AI applicability 0.08: the 23rd percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $49,590
Perform work involving the skills of two or more maintenance or craft occupations to keep machines, mechanical equipment, or the structure of a building in repair.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Perform routine maintenance, such as inspecting drives, motors, or belts, checking fluid levels, replacing filters, or doing other preventive maintenance actions.
Full breakdown for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General →
19.Mechanical Door Repairers
Risk: 57/100- AI applicability 0.08: the 25th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $55,720
Install, service, or repair automatic door mechanisms and hydraulic doors.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Carry springs to tops of doors, using ladders or scaffolding, and attach springs to tracks to install spring systems.
20.Commercial Divers
Risk: 58/100- AI applicability 0.08: the 27th percentile of 785 occupations
- BLS median pay: $72,990
Work below surface of water, using surface-supplied air or scuba equipment to inspect, repair, remove, or install equipment and structures.
A task our analysis keeps with a person: Supervise or train other divers, including hobby divers.
Two kinds of automation, two different answers
Microsoft's number is about generative AI: text, code, analysis and advice. Trades score low on it almost across the board, because most of the work is physical. Ours blends in the Frey & Osborne computerisation estimates, which were built to include robots and machine control, so physical but repetitive work scores higher.
When you're choosing a trade, the ones that do well on both measures share a pattern. Every job site is different, you diagnose before you fix, and you're trusted to work inside occupied buildings or live systems. HVAC mechanics, millwrights and commercial divers all fit it.
Why electricians, plumbers and carpenters aren't on the list
These trades are everyone's first guess, and their generative-AI exposure is mostly low. They missed the cut because our risk score rates them 60 or above, or because Microsoft puts them just over the median:
- Electricians: risk 63/100 · AI applicability 0.15: the 53rd percentile of 785 occupations · BLS median $63,190
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters: risk 63/100 · AI applicability 0.07: the 22nd percentile of 785 occupations (score for its occupation group) · BLS median $63,800
- Carpenters: risk 84/100 · AI applicability 0.06: the 15th percentile of 785 occupations · BLS median $60,580
- Roofers: risk 80/100 · AI applicability 0.01: the 2nd percentile of 785 occupations · BLS median $55,440
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers: risk 87/100 · AI applicability 0.07: the 22nd percentile of 785 occupations · BLS median $53,750
- Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics: risk 72/100 · AI applicability 0.12: the 43rd percentile of 785 occupations · BLS median $50,620
Not on the list? Check your own job
We score 1,000+ occupations. Search yours to see both numbers.
New · every week
New remote roles in your field — with each one's AI-exposure score — every week
10–15 remote postings from the past week, picked from company career pages and the Himalayas and Jobicy boards. Each shows how exposed the occupation is to AI, from Microsoft's 2025 study of 785 jobs. You apply on the original posting.
Frequently asked questions
Which trade is least exposed to AI?
On Microsoft's 2025 study, floor sanders and finishers and rail-track laying equipment operators sit at the bottom of all 785 occupations for generative-AI applicability. Among trades that also score under 60 on our risk score, solar installation managers, construction and mechanic supervisors, glaziers and floor installers rank highest.
Are electricians safe from AI?
Electricians score 63/100 on our risk score and sit just above the median (around the 53rd percentile) on Microsoft's measure, so they miss this list narrowly. Chat-based AI barely touches the hands-on work. Planning, code lookups and estimating are where it shows up first.
Will robots replace tradespeople?
Our risk score suggests the repetitive, predictable parts of some trades, like framing, roofing and welding on a line, are the most automatable. That's why those trades score 80+ on it. Repair and installation in varied real-world spaces remain hard to automate.
Related
Sources and method
- Risk score: ReplacedByAI's 0–100 score from O*NET task, skill and work-activity data, weighted 40% on the Frey & Osborne computerisation probabilities. Full methodology.
- AI applicability: Kiran Tomlinson, Sonia Jaffe, Will Wang, Scott Counts and Siddharth Suri, “Working with AI: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations” (Microsoft, 2025). Data from microsoft/working-with-ai, licensed CC BY 4.0. Percentiles are our calculation, among its 785occupations. Joined on the 6-digit SOC code, so O*NET specialties share their group's score.
- Pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, national annual median wage, May 2025.
- Filters: Microsoft percentile 50 or lower and our risk score under 60. “All other” catch-all occupations are excluded.