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 Curators?
Task-level automation exposure for Curators: 15 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
15 of 15 tasks scored
Median Salary
$63,420 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
12,150 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+4.9%
employment change
1,600 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 49 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$40,600 – $93,310
Highest medians
District of Columbia $93,310
New Hampshire $82,490
New York $79,120
California $78,740
Rhode Island $77,930
Lowest medians
Mississippi $40,600
South Carolina $47,200
North Carolina $49,470
Hawaii $50,720
Iowa $53,830
State figures come from the 25-4012 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 9%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 42%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 11%
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 4/100
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
15 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) 27%
4 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 59%
9 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 15%
2 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 →Constituent Tasks
#18641 · Core · 38% automatable
Plan and organize the acquisition, storage, and exhibition of collections and related materials, including the selection of exhibition themes and designs, and develop or install exhibit materials.
decision support — Routine ordering automatable; human approves purchases
Construct exhibits or parts of exhibits. Order instructional or library materials or equipment.
#1644 · Core · 62% automatable
Develop and maintain an institution's registration, cataloging, and basic record-keeping systems, using computer databases.
text generation — Archival schema drafted; curation judgment human
Develop library or archival databases.
#1649 · Core · 78% automatable
Plan and conduct special research projects in area of interest or expertise.
information retrieval — AI researches and synthesizes; human judges relevance
Research topics in area of expertise.
#1645 · Core · 55% automatable
Provide information from the institution's holdings to other curators and to the public.
information retrieval — Public info provision partly automatable; accountability human
Provide information to the general public.
#1648 · Core · 55% automatable
Negotiate and authorize purchase, sale, exchange, or loan of collections.
decision support — Routine ordering automatable; human approves purchases
Negotiate purchases or contracts. Order instructional or library materials or equipment.
#1655 · Core · 30% automatable
Study, examine, and test acquisitions to authenticate their origin, composition, history, and to assess their current value.
visual inspection — Archival object evaluation needs hands-on examination
Evaluate characteristics of archival or historical objects.
#1646 · Core · 21% automatable
Inspect premises to assess the need for repairs and to ensure that climate and pest control issues are addressed.
visual inspection — Physical site verification against specs is human
Inspect work sites to determine condition or necessary repairs. Inspect facilities or sites to determine if they meet specifications or standards. Inspect condition or functioning of facilities or equipment.
#1654 · Core · 60% automatable
Write and review grant proposals, journal articles, institutional reports, and publicity materials.
information retrieval — Scholarly critique aided; expert judgment owns verdict
Evaluate scholarly materials. Write grant proposals. Write articles, books or other original materials in area of expertise.
#18642 · Core · 52% automatable
Design, organize, or conduct tours, workshops, and instructional or educational sessions to acquaint individuals with an institution's facilities and materials.
interpersonal — Public programs need community engagement and judgment
Plan community programs or activities for the general public.
#1652 · Core · 55% automatable
Attend meetings, conventions, and civic events to promote use of institution's services, to seek financing, and to maintain community alliances.
text generation — Promotional content drafted; human owns institutional relationships
Promote educational institutions or programs.
#1647 · Core · 35% automatable
Train and supervise curatorial, fiscal, technical, research, and clerical staff, as well as volunteers or interns.
interpersonal — Staff training is relational and accountability-bearing
Train staff members. Direct activities of subordinates.
#1651 · Core · 42% automatable
Confer with the board of directors to formulate and interpret policies, to determine budget requirements, and to plan overall operations.
interpersonal — Arranging operations requires live human negotiation
Confer with others to conduct or arrange operational activities.
#1656 · Supplemental · 55% automatable
Arrange insurance coverage for objects on loan or for special exhibits and recommend changes in coverage for the entire collection.
decision support — Coverage arranged via systems; judgment and liability human
Arrange insurance coverage.
#1653 · Supplemental · 52% automatable
Schedule events and organize details, including refreshment, entertainment, decorations, and the collection of any fees.
interpersonal — Public programs need community engagement and judgment
Plan community programs or activities for the general public.
#1657 · Supplemental · 70% automatable
Establish specifications for reproductions and oversee their manufacture or select items from commercially available replica sources.
data analysis — Materials inventory records and forecasting automatable
Maintain inventories of materials, equipment, or products.
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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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