Will AI replace Chemical Plant and System Operators?
Estimated risk score: 25 out of 100
Lower replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (6 to 44).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 19 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 51-8091.00 · Production
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 2 of its 19 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Calculate material requirements or yields according to formulas.
- Record operating data, such as process conditions, test results, or instrument readings.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 14 of its 19 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Control or operate chemical processes or systems of machines, using panelboards, control boards, or semi-automatic equipment.
- Move control settings to make necessary adjustments on equipment units affecting speeds of chemical reactions, quality, or yields.
- Patrol work areas to ensure that solutions in tanks or troughs are not in danger of overflowing.
- Repair or replace damaged equipment.
- Start pumps to wash and rinse reactor vessels, to exhaust gases or vapors, to regulate the flow of oil, steam, air, or perfume to towers, or to add products to converter or blending vessels.
- Turn valves to regulate flow of products or byproducts through agitator tanks, storage drums, or neutralizer tanks.
What the job is
Control or operate entire chemical processes or system of machines.
Also called: Loader Technician, Denitrator, Tower Operator, Plant Associate, Processing Tech, Nitrogen Operator, Ammonia Technician, Front Wash Operator.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate