There’s a question many master technicians are asking quietly:
“If AI can do it… what happens to my craft?”
Under that question is a deeper fear: “Am I becoming obsolete?”
But the report makes a sharper claim:
AI isn’t coming for your job.
AI is coming for the parts of your job you hate.
AI can handle the tedious, repeatable parts: data entry, routine designs, basic adjustments.
What it cannot match—now and for the foreseeable future—is the human layer:
The report frames lab work as an 80/20 split:
The 80% (routine): standard single crowns, predictable anatomy, basic layering, standard shade matching, case management
The 20% (artistry): full-arch rehabs, challenging occlusion, custom characterization, difficult shades, doctor consultation/problem-solving
AI excels at the 80%.
You excel at the 20%.
So the real question isn’t “AI vs Technician.”
It’s: How do you use AI to spend more time on the work that actually requires you?
The most successful craftsmen adopt a new identity: Quality Gatekeeper.
Think of AI like a junior tech: it can do first-pass work fast, follow templates, and move routine cases forward.
But you would never let a junior tech ship without review. AI is the same.
The Gatekeeper workflow looks like this:
This is how craftsmanship survives automation: by focusing on where human expertise is irreplaceable.
The report shares a technician with 28 years’ experience who resisted digital workflows until 2022, worried tech would make him irrelevant.
After embracing AI as leverage, he processed 40% more cases than in 2021 with higher quality scores and fewer remakes.
His takeaway: when routine work becomes automated, expertise becomes more valuable, not less because it’s no longer wasted.
The report argues the industry is bifurcating:
The commodity side will automate. That’s inevitable.
The opportunity is choosing where you’ll sit: competing against automation, or controlling it.
This post is a high-level summary. The full PDF includes the complete “Quality Gatekeeper” model, the 80/20 framework, and how to position your lab/technicians for premium work in an automated era.
