Community Sentiment
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Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?
AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Archivists?
Task-level automation exposure for Archivists: 13 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
55%
weighted task index
13 of 13 tasks scored
Median Salary
$64,550 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
7,970 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+3.4%
employment change
1,100 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 39 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$40,900 – $93,040
Highest medians
District of Columbia $93,040
Connecticut $79,790
Massachusetts $78,180
Rhode Island $76,990
Washington $76,490
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $40,900
Arizona $47,010
Kentucky $48,810
Kansas $49,200
Texas $50,160
State figures come from the 25-4011 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 55%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 8%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 45%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 18%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 7/100
Low
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
13 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 53%
7 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 16%
2 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 31%
4 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Emerging & rewritten tasks
Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.
- New 08/2024 · Occupational Expert
Write grants and apply for funding to support archival work.
Constituent Tasks
#7631 · Core · 74% automatable
Organize archival records and develop classification systems to facilitate access to archival materials.
text generation — Organize and structure informational materials
Develop policies or procedures for archives, museums or libraries. Organize informational materials.
#7633 · Core · 55% automatable
Provide reference services and assistance for users needing archival materials.
information retrieval — Guiding resource use; in-person help needed
Help patrons use library or archival resources.
#7635 · Core · 82% automatable
Prepare archival records, such as document descriptions, to allow easy access to information.
text generation — Write informational material from brief
Collect archival data. Write informational material.
#7630 · Core · 62% automatable
Create and maintain accessible, retrievable computer archives and databases, incorporating current advances in electronic information storage technology.
text generation — Archival schema drafted; curation judgment human
Develop library or archival databases.
#7637 · Core · 65% automatable
Establish and administer policy guidelines concerning public access and use of materials.
text generation — AI drafts archival policies; curator approves
Develop policies or procedures for archives, museums or libraries.
#7634 · Core · 30% automatable
Direct activities of workers who assist in arranging, cataloguing, exhibiting, and maintaining collections of valuable materials.
interpersonal — Directing subordinates carries accountability and motivation
Direct activities of subordinates.
#7636 · Core · 6% automatable
Preserve records, documents, and objects, copying records to film, videotape, audiotape, disk, or computer formats as necessary.
physical manipulation — Preparing materials for storage is physical
Prepare materials for preservation, storage, or display.
#7639 · Core · 30% automatable
Research and record the origins and historical significance of archival materials.
visual inspection — Archival object evaluation needs hands-on examination
Evaluate characteristics of archival or historical objects.
#7638 · Core · 72% automatable
Locate new materials and direct their acquisition and display.
decision support — Routine ordering automatable; human approves purchases
Order instructional or library materials or equipment.
#7632 · Core · 30% automatable
Authenticate and appraise historical documents and archival materials.
visual inspection — Archival object evaluation needs hands-on examination
Evaluate characteristics of archival or historical objects.
#7641 · Core · 52% automatable
Coordinate educational and public outreach programs, such as tours, workshops, lectures, and classes.
interpersonal — Public programs need community engagement and judgment
Plan community programs or activities for the general public.
#7640 · Core · 78% automatable
Specialize in an area of history or technology, researching topics or items relevant to collections to determine what should be retained or acquired.
information retrieval — AI researches and synthesizes; human judges relevance
Research topics in area of expertise.
#7642 · Core · 80% automatable
Select and edit documents for publication and display, applying knowledge of subject, literary expression, and presentation techniques.
text generation — Document editing largely automatable with human review
Edit documents.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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