Will AI replace Civil Engineers?
Estimated risk score: 55 out of 100
Moderate 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 (36 to 74).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 17 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 17-2051.00 · Architecture and Engineering
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: 3 of its 17 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions.
- Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications.
- Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 3 of its 17 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.
- Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
- Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.
What the job is
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.
Also called: Base Engineer, City Engineer, Bridge Engineer, Forest Engineer, Street Engineer, Zoning Engineer, Asphalt Engineer, Mapping Engineer.
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