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Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?
AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Cartographers and Photogrammetrists?
Task-level automation exposure for Cartographers and Photogrammetrists: 14 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
45%
weighted task index
14 of 14 tasks scored
Median Salary
$81,390 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
14,260 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+7.4%
employment change
900 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 41 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$54,680 – $102,780
Highest medians
California $102,780
Minnesota $99,850
Washington $96,100
Nevada $93,560
Massachusetts $92,230
Lowest medians
Illinois $54,680
Louisiana $59,990
Georgia $62,630
Wyoming $70,590
Ohio $70,990
State figures come from the 17-1021 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 45%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 0%
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 0%
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 11/100
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
14 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%) 11%
2 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 36%
5 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 08/2018 · Incumbent
Estimate resources, such as production hours, required for projects.
- New 05/2025 · AI/SME
Use drone technology to capture high-resolution images and data for map creation and updating.
Constituent Tasks
#3517 · Core · 18% automatable
Compile data required for map preparation, including aerial photographs, survey notes, records, reports, and original maps.
physical manipulation — Physical field survey requires hands-on measurement in situ
Gather physical survey data.
#3522 · Core · 60% automatable
Delineate aerial photographic detail, such as control points, hydrography, topography, and cultural features, using precision stereoplotting apparatus or drafting instruments.
visual inspection — Generates maps; cartographic accuracy and standards human
Create maps.
#3524 · Core · 60% automatable
Prepare and alter trace maps, charts, tables, detailed drawings, and three-dimensional optical models of terrain using stereoscopic plotting and computer graphics equipment.
visual inspection — Generates maps; cartographic accuracy and standards human
Create maps.
#3526 · Core · 18% automatable
Study legal records to establish boundaries of local, national, and international properties.
physical manipulation — Physical field survey requires hands-on measurement in situ
Gather physical survey data.
#3518 · Core · 25% automatable
Inspect final compositions to ensure completeness and accuracy.
visual inspection — Flaw location on physical products needs presence
Inspect finished products to locate flaws.
#3516 · Core · 60% automatable
Revise existing maps and charts, making all necessary corrections and adjustments.
visual inspection — Generates maps; cartographic accuracy and standards human
Create maps.
#3514 · Core · 75% automatable
Identify, scale, and orient geodetic points, elevations, and other planimetric or topographic features, applying standard mathematical formulas.
data analysis — Coordinate computation from survey data
Calculate geographic positions from survey data.
#3515 · Core · 18% automatable
Collect information about specific features of the Earth, using aerial photography and other digital remote sensing techniques.
situated mobility — Field survey of land/water bodies
Survey land or bodies of water to measure or determine features.
#3520 · Core · 65% automatable
Examine and analyze data from ground surveys, reports, aerial photographs, and satellite images to prepare topographic maps, aerial-photograph mosaics, and related charts.
data analysis — Analyzes survey/physical data; human checks quality
Analyze physical, survey, or geographic data.
#3523 · Core · 35% automatable
Build and update digital databases.
physical manipulation — Operating systems requires hands-on interaction
Operate computer systems.
#3519 · Core · 60% automatable
Determine map content and layout, as well as production specifications such as scale, size, projection, and colors, and direct production to ensure that specifications are followed.
visual inspection — Generates maps; cartographic accuracy and standards human
Create maps.
#3525 · Supplemental · 65% automatable
Determine guidelines that specify which source material is acceptable for use.
decision support — Design criteria drafted; human owns decisions
Determine design criteria or specifications.
#3521 · Supplemental · 53% automatable
Select aerial photographic and remote sensing techniques and plotting equipment needed to meet required standards of accuracy.
decision support — Tool selection needs context; human decides and procures
Determine operational methods. Select tools, equipment, or technologies for use in operations or projects.
#3527 · Supplemental · 18% automatable
Travel over photographed areas to observe, identify, record, and verify all relevant features.
situated mobility — Field survey of land/water bodies
Survey land or bodies of water to measure or determine features.
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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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