AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians?

Task-level automation exposure for Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians: 14 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

55% weighted task index

14 of 14 tasks scored

Median Salary

$64,950 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Medium

68,520 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+3.2% employment change

6,100 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 52 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$37,230 – $85,390

Highest medians

Oregon $85,390

California $83,490

Washington $79,580

Illinois $79,190

Minnesota $78,690

Lowest medians

Guam $37,230

Puerto Rico $42,390

Mississippi $46,430

Georgia $50,360

Arkansas $51,750

State figures come from the 17-3022 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 0%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 38%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 9%

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 10/100 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) 52%

7 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 30%

4 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 18%

3 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 05/2025 · AI/SME

Operate drones for site surveying and inspection, providing detailed aerial views of project sites.

Constituent Tasks

#1461 · Core · 68% automatable

Calculate dimensions, square footage, profile and component specifications, and material quantities, using calculator or computer.

data analysis — Estimates from specs; human validates assumptions and risk

Estimate technical or resource requirements for development or production projects.

#1464 · Core · 80% automatable

Read and review project blueprints and structural specifications to determine dimensions of structure or system and material requirements.

text generation — Review technical docs to plan work

Review technical documents to plan work.

#1462 · Core · 45% automatable

Draft detailed dimensional drawings and design layouts for projects to ensure conformance to specifications.

text generation — Civil drawings need licensed engineering judgment

Create graphical representations of civil structures.

#1466 · Core · 55% automatable

Confer with supervisor to determine project details such as plan preparation, acceptance testing, and evaluation of field conditions.

interpersonal — Conferring with technical staff on plans is relational work

Confer with technical personnel to prepare designs or operational plans.

#1463 · Core · 60% automatable

Analyze proposed site factors and design maps, graphs, tracings, and diagrams to illustrate findings.

visual inspection — Generates maps; cartographic accuracy and standards human

Create maps.

#1465 · Core · 80% automatable

Prepare reports and document project activities and data.

text generation — Generate operational reports from structured data

Prepare operational reports.

#1470 · Core · 58% automatable

Report maintenance problems occurring at project site to supervisor and negotiate changes to resolve system conflicts.

decision support — Design problem conferral aided; accountability stays human

Confer with other personnel to resolve design or operational problems.

#1467 · Supplemental · 22% automatable

Inspect project site and evaluate contractor work to detect design malfunctions and ensure conformance to design specifications and applicable codes.

visual inspection — Physical site verification against specs is human

Inspect facilities or sites to determine if they meet specifications or standards.

#1471 · Supplemental · 25% automatable

Conduct materials test and analysis, using tools and equipment and applying engineering knowledge.

physical manipulation — Material characteristic testing needs physical instruments

Test characteristics of materials or structures.

#1469 · Supplemental · 70% automatable

Develop plans and estimate costs for installation of systems, utilization of facilities, or construction of structures.

text generation — Detailed work plans drafted from specifications

Estimate operational costs. Prepare detailed work plans.

#20965 · Supplemental · 62% automatable

Develop project budgets by estimating the cost of project activities.

data analysis — Project budgets drafted by AI, human reviews

Prepare project budgets.

#1468 · Supplemental · 18% automatable

Plan and conduct field surveys to locate new sites and analyze details of project sites.

situated mobility — Field survey of land/water bodies

Survey land or bodies of water to measure or determine features.

#1472 · Supplemental · 64% automatable

Respond to public suggestions and complaints.

text generation — Written correspondence to customers is largely automatable

Respond to customer problems or complaints. Correspond with customers to answer questions or resolve complaints.

#20966 · Supplemental · 38% automatable

Negotiate with contractors on prices for new contracts or modifications to existing contracts.

interpersonal — Price negotiation needs live give-and-take

Negotiate prices or other sales terms.

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Community Sentiment

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Method

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

See the full method →

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