Will AI replace Sewing Machine Operators?
Estimated risk score: 9 out of 100
Very low replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (0 to 28).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 26 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 51-6031.00 · Production
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 1 of its 26 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Record quantities of materials processed.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 23 of its 26 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Attach tape, trim, appliques, or elastic to specified garments or garment parts, according to item specifications.
- Cut excess material or thread from finished products.
- Fold or stretch edges or lengths of items while sewing to facilitate forming specified sections.
- Guide garments or garment parts under machine needles and presser feet to sew parts together.
- Match cloth pieces in correct sequences prior to sewing them, and verify that dye lots and patterns match.
- Monitor machine operation to detect problems such as defective stitching, breaks in thread, or machine malfunctions.
What the job is
Operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products.
Also called: Yoker, Baster, Cuffer, Hemmer, Padder, Purler, Serger, Tucker.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate