All occupations › ProductionCan AI Replace Patternmakers, Wood in 2026? Lower exposure. AI could handle about 27% of today's patternmakers, wood tasks by 2036, and there is a 17% chance the number of jobs falls by a fifth or more. AI mostly assists people in this role.
See how not to be replaced
Timeline Year 2030 Chance of 20%+ fewer jobs
11% 2030 · 17% 2036
One person could cover, 2036
~1 roles
0% 50% 100% 2026 2028 2030 2032 2034 2036 2026: 12% 2027: 13% 2028: 14% 2029: 16% 2030: 18% 2031: 20% 2032: 22% 2033: 24% 2034: 26% 2035: 27% 2036: 27% 18% Share of today's tasks AI can perform 40 80 120 2026 2028 2030 2032 2034 2036 2026: 100 2027: 99 2028: 98 2029: 98 2030: 97 2031: 96 2032: 95 2033: 94 2034: 94 2035: 93 2036: 93 97 Headcount index, 2025 = 100 (dashed line) Your survival map Not every part of your job is at the same risk. Tap a number to see what to do about each task.
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Tap a number on the map or a task below.
1 Fit, fasten, and assemble wood parts together to form patterns, models, or sections, using glue, nails, dowels, bolts, and screws. 2 Trim, smooth, and shape surfaces, and plane, shave, file, scrape, and sand models to attain specified shapes, using hand tools. 3 Divide patterns into sections according to shapes of castings to facilitate removal of patterns from molds. 4 Read blueprints, drawings, or written specifications to determine sizes and shapes of patterns and required machine setups. 5 Lay out patterns on wood stock and draw outlines of units, sectional patterns, or full-scale mock-ups of products, based on blueprint specifications and sketches, and… 6 Maintain pattern records for reference. 7 Compute dimensions, areas, volumes, and weights. 8 Estimate costs for patternmaking jobs. 9 Inventory equipment and supplies, ordering parts and tools as necessary. Lower-risk jobs that use similar skills Your plan Ticks are saved in this browser only.
Try an AI tool on one task you'd normally do by hand: "Maintain pattern records for reference". Learn one AI tool well enough to show it in an interview, for: "Read blueprints, drawings, or written specifications to determine sizes and shapes of patterns and required machine setups". Get visibly better at your human core: "Fit, fasten, and assemble wood parts together to form patterns, models, or sections, using glue, nails, dowels, bolts, and screws". Rewrite the top of your CV around judgment, people and decisions, not routine output. Read about a lower-risk move: Carpenters. Lower-risk jobs with similar tasks Based on 20 O*NET tasks for "Patternmakers, Wood" (SOC 51-7032.00). LLM alone: 21% of tasks; with AI tools: 31%. Projections are a model, not official statistics. How we calculate this · Data version 2026-10
