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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Chemical Engineers?
Task-level automation exposure for Chemical Engineers: 14 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
50%
weighted task index
14 of 14 tasks scored
Median Salary
$125,040 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
21,070 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+4.7%
employment change
1,100 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.
$73,250 – $158,190
Highest medians
New Mexico $158,190
Virginia $136,380
Alabama $135,030
Louisiana $134,800
Delaware $133,670
Lowest medians
New Hampshire $73,250
Utah $85,520
Wisconsin $97,660
Nebraska $98,310
South Carolina $101,570
State figures come from the 17-2041 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 50%
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 44%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 7%
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 35/100
Moderate
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) 22%
3 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 72%
10 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 6%
1 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 08/2025 · Occupational Expert
Adapt processes to convert from small-scale laboratory operations to large-scale commercial production.
- New 08/2025 · Occupational Expert
Develop process flow diagrams or pipe and instrumentation diagrams.
Constituent Tasks
#3552 · Core · 55% automatable
Develop safety procedures to be employed by workers operating equipment or working in close proximity to ongoing chemical reactions.
text generation — Policy drafts aided; organizational adoption human
Develop safety standards, policies, or procedures.
#18471 · Core · 55% automatable
Troubleshoot problems with chemical manufacturing processes.
decision support — Root-cause hypotheses; human verifies in the field
Determine causes of operational problems or failures.
#20955 · Core · 40% automatable
Monitor and analyze data from processes and experiments.
data analysis — Modeling aided; experimental validation human
Research engineering aspects of biological or chemical processes.
#18472 · Core · 60% automatable
Evaluate chemical equipment and processes to identify ways to optimize performance or to ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations.
data analysis — Equipment specs analysis aided; physical testing human
Evaluate characteristics of equipment or systems.
#3560 · Core · 45% automatable
Design and plan layout of equipment.
decision support — AI models process systems; engineer validates feasibility
Design industrial processing systems.
#3554 · Core · 74% automatable
Prepare estimate of production costs and production progress reports for management.
text generation — Generate operational reports from structured data
Estimate operational costs. Prepare operational reports.
#18473 · Core · 48% automatable
Perform tests and monitor performance of processes throughout stages of production to determine degree of control over variables such as temperature, density, specific gravity, and pressure.
data analysis — Efficiency metrics are digital and analyzable by AI
Monitor the productivity or efficiency of industrial operations. Conduct validation tests of equipment or processes.
#3558 · Core · 40% automatable
Conduct research to develop new and improved chemical manufacturing processes.
data analysis — Modeling aided; experimental validation human
Research engineering aspects of biological or chemical processes.
#3553 · Core · 50% automatable
Determine most effective arrangement of operations such as mixing, crushing, heat transfer, distillation, and drying.
decision support — Operational methods aided; human decides
Determine operational methods.
#3557 · Core · 60% automatable
Develop processes to separate components of liquids or gases or generate electrical currents, using controlled chemical processes.
text generation — AI drafts technical methods; expert validates feasibility
Develop technical methods or processes.
#3559 · Core · 50% automatable
Design measurement and control systems for chemical plants based on data collected in laboratory experiments and in pilot plant operations.
decision support — AI drafts control logic; engineer validates safety
Design control systems for mechanical or other equipment.
#3556 · Core · 45% automatable
Perform laboratory studies of steps in manufacture of new products and test proposed processes in small-scale operation, such as a pilot plant.
information retrieval — Process research aided; plant observation needs humans
Research industrial processes or operations. Conduct validation tests of equipment or processes.
#24003 · Core · 50% automatable
Develop computer models of chemical processes.
text generation — Modeling code drafted; validation and domain framing human
Research engineering aspects of biological or chemical processes. Design computer modeling or simulation programs.
#3555 · Core · 28% automatable
Direct activities of workers who operate or are engaged in constructing and improving absorption, evaporation, or electromagnetic equipment.
interpersonal — Industrial production direction is human supervisory control
Direct industrial production activities.
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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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