Set up, operate, or tend machines to mix or blend materials, such as chemicals, tobacco, liquids, color pigments, or explosive ingredients.
U.S. Workers
100,840
Median Salary
$47,680
10-Year Growth
-6.8%
Annual Openings
8,800
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent
19 of 19 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Weigh or measure materials, ingredients, or products to ensure conformance to requirements.
AI: Fully automatable - Weighing and measuring to ensure conformance is routinely fully automated with scales, sensors, and control software.
Compound or process ingredients or dyes, according to formulas.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can precisely control dosing and processing equipment to follow formulas, enabling full automation of compounding when integrated with actuators and sensors.
Read work orders to determine production specifications or information.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems can parse, interpret, and act on work orders using NLP and integrated production control systems, so this is fully automatable.
Observe production or monitor equipment to ensure safe and efficient operation.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can continuously monitor sensors and video feeds to detect faults, performance drift, and safety issues and trigger alarms or control actions, enabling full automation of monitoring.
Mix or blend ingredients by starting machines and mixing for specified times.
AI: Fully automatable - Starting machines and controlling mixing durations are routine control tasks that AI and PLCs can manage automatically according to recipes.
Stop mixing or blending machines when specified product qualities are obtained and open valves and start pumps to transfer mixtures.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can detect attainment of product quality via sensors and control safety-rated actuators (stop machines, open valves, start pumps) in integrated facilities, so this is fully automatable.
Record operational or production data on specified forms.
AI: Fully automatable - Sensors, PLCs, MES/LIMS and digital forms can fully capture and record operational and production data automatically in most facilities.
Open valves to drain slurry from mixers into storage tanks.
AI: Fully automatable - Valve actuators and process control systems routinely enable remote or scheduled draining of mixers into storage tanks in modern plants.
Dump or pour specified amounts of materials into machinery or equipment.
AI: Partial - Dumping or pouring specified amounts requires robust, context‑aware robotic manipulation across variable materials and containers, which is only partially automated in 2025.
Collect samples of materials or products for laboratory testing.
AI: Partial - Automated samplers exist but representative, sterile, and diverse-sample collection still often requires human judgment and dexterity, so automation is partial.
Operate or tend machines to mix or blend any of a wide variety of materials, such as spices, dough batter, tobacco, fruit juices, chemicals, livestock feed, food products, color pigments, or explosive ingredients.
AI: Partial - Operating and tending machines for a very wide variety of materials demands adaptable perception and manipulation beyond most deployed robotic systems, so this is partially automatable.
Add or mix chemicals or ingredients for processing, using hand tools or other devices.
AI: Partial - Adding or mixing chemicals with hand tools involves fine manual manipulation and contextual safety judgments that current AI-robot systems can only handle in limited scenarios.
Examine materials, ingredients, or products visually or with hands to ensure conformance to established standards.
AI: Partial - Visual inspection is highly automatable but tactile (hands-on) assessment and nuanced human judgment remain difficult to fully replicate, so this is partial.
Transfer materials, supplies, or products between work areas, using moving equipment or hand tools.
AI: Partial - Robotic/AGV systems can move materials in controlled environments, but varied, ad-hoc transfers and use of hand tools in messy or constrained spaces still require humans.
Test samples of materials or products to ensure compliance with specifications, using test equipment.
AI: Partial - Inline sensors and lab automation handle routine tests, yet nonstandard sampling, preparation, and nuanced interpretation often still need human involvement.
Tend accessory equipment, such as pumps or conveyors, to move materials or ingredients through production processes.
AI: Partial - Pumps and conveyors are commonly automated and monitored, but hands-on tending, adjustments and ad-hoc troubleshooting frequently require human operators.
Unload mixtures into containers or onto conveyors for further processing.
AI: Partial - Robotics can unload predictable mixtures, but variable viscosities, residues, sanitary concerns and unpredictable containment make full automation limited in many contexts.
Clean and maintain equipment, using hand tools.
AI: Partial - Automated cleaning systems exist for some equipment, but routine cleaning and maintenance with hand tools still largely depend on human dexterity and judgment.
Dislodge and clear jammed materials or other items from machinery or equipment, using hand tools.
AI: Partial - Dislodging jams requires tactile feedback, complex situational assessment and safety decisions that are difficult to fully automate, though assistance is possible.