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Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?
AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Cost Estimators?
Task-level automation exposure for Cost Estimators: 14 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
67%
weighted task index
14 of 14 tasks scored
Median Salary
$78,740 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
High
224,220 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
-3.1%
employment change
17,600 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 53 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$47,130 – $100,840
Highest medians
Massachusetts $100,840
Alaska $97,020
Wyoming $90,790
Colorado $86,940
Washington $86,070
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $47,130
Arkansas $61,470
Guam $63,350
New Mexico $67,590
Oklahoma $67,800
State figures come from the 13-1051 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 67%
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 59%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 12%
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 5/100
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) 71%
10 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 23%
3 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 05/2025 · AI/SME
Use remote sensing technologies or drones to evaluate site conditions when in-person visits are not feasible.
Constituent Tasks
#80 · Core · 78% automatable
Analyze blueprints and other documentation to prepare time, cost, materials, and labor estimates.
data analysis — Cost estimation from given inputs
Estimate costs of goods or services.
#83 · Core · 55% automatable
Confer with engineers, architects, owners, contractors, and subcontractors on changes and adjustments to cost estimates.
decision support — Financial conferral aided; judgment and trust human
Confer with others about financial matters.
#20846 · Core · 80% automatable
Collect historical cost data to estimate costs for current or future products.
data analysis — Analyzes structured financial data with tools
Analyze business or financial data.
#81 · Core · 77% automatable
Assess cost effectiveness of products, projects or services, tracking actual costs relative to bids as the project develops.
data analysis — Financial indicator monitoring is well-suited to AI analytics
Monitor financial indicators. Assess the cost effectiveness of products, projects, or services.
#82 · Core · 45% automatable
Consult with clients, vendors, personnel in other departments, or construction foremen to discuss and formulate estimates and resolve issues.
interpersonal — Business operations coordination is live and relational
Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.
#90 · Core · 44% automatable
Establish and maintain tendering process, and conduct negotiations.
decision support — AI drafts methods; human owns business judgment
Establish business management methods. Negotiate agreements to resolve disputes.
#85 · Core · 78% automatable
Prepare estimates for use in selecting vendors or subcontractors.
data analysis — Cost estimation from given inputs
Estimate costs of goods or services.
#84 · Core · 78% automatable
Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work.
data analysis — Cost estimation from given inputs
Estimate costs of goods or services.
#89 · Core · 60% automatable
Set up cost monitoring and reporting systems and procedures.
decision support — AI drafts system specs; business context human
Develop business or financial information systems.
#86 · Core · 78% automatable
Review material and labor requirements to decide whether it is more cost-effective to produce or purchase components.
data analysis — Cost estimation from given inputs
Estimate costs of goods or services.
#87 · Core · 82% automatable
Prepare cost and expenditure statements and other necessary documentation at regular intervals for the duration of the project.
text generation — Standard financial documents drafted from data
Prepare financial documents.
#91 · Core · 79% automatable
Conduct special studies to develop and establish standard hour and related cost data or to reduce cost.
data analysis — Analyzes structured financial data with tools
Analyze business or financial data. Estimate costs of goods or services.
#92 · Core · 19% automatable
Visit site and record information about access, drainage and topography, and availability of utility services.
visual inspection — On-site physical condition assessment is human work
Collect data about project sites. Inspect work sites to determine condition or necessary repairs.
#88 · Core · 85% automatable
Prepare and maintain a directory of suppliers, contractors and subcontractors.
data analysis — Enter and maintain data in information systems
Maintain data in information systems or databases.
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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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