Will AI replace Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters?

What this score means

Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters is among the least exposed roles in Construction & Trades. Most of what the job involves still sits outside what current AI can do, even as the tools around it keep changing. At 14 out of 100 it sits close to the Construction & Trades average of 14. Across the 3 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 8 to 20, so the score is a weighted consensus rather than any single figure.

The number is a consensus estimate for the typical version of the role, built from published academic and industry research scored occupation by occupation. It is not a prediction about any individual. How scoring works

What this job actually involves

Exposure follows the work itself rather than the job title, so it is worth seeing what the role is made of. These are the tasks O*NET records for Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters, most central first, showing 12 of 27.

• 01Examine blast areas to determine amounts and kinds of explosive charges needed and to ensure that safety laws are observed.
• 02Tie specified lengths of delaying fuses into patterns in order to time sequences of explosions.
• 03Place safety cones around blast areas to alert other workers of danger zones, and signal workers as necessary to ensure that they clear blast sites prior to explosions.
• 04Place explosive charges in holes or other spots; then detonate explosives to demolish structures or to loosen, remove, or displace earth, rock, or other materials.
• 05Insert, pack, and pour explosives, such as dynamite, ammonium nitrate, black powder, or slurries into blast holes; then shovel drill cuttings, admit water into boreholes, and tamp material to compact charges.
• 06Mark patterns, locations, and depths of charge holes for drilling, and issue drilling instructions.
• 07Compile and keep gun and explosives records in compliance with local and federal laws.
• 08Measure depths of drilled blast holes, using weighted tape measures.
• 09Connect electrical wire to primers, and cover charges or fill blast holes with clay, drill chips, sand, or other material.
• 10Lay primacord between rows of charged blast holes, and tie cord into main lines to form blast patterns.
• 11Assemble and position equipment, explosives, and blasting caps in holes at specified depths, or load perforating guns or torpedoes with explosives.
• 12Verify detonation of charges by observing control panels, or by listening for the sounds of blasts.

Task statements from O*NET by the National Center for O*NET Development, used under CC BY 4.0. The tasks are descriptive; the exposure score above is ours.

The research behind this score

This baseline aggregates 3 research sources that scored Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.

• 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026
• 02GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024
• 03AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023

Also covers

Aircraft Ordnance Technician · Ammunition and Explosives Handler · Blast Driller · Blast Hole Driller · Blast Setter · Blast Technician · Blaster · Blasting Clay Miner and related titles

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