Professionals · code 2145

Chemical engineers

AI can prepare the cost reports. Designing a process that won't explode is still engineering.

Cost estimates and progress reports are the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. Designing plant and processes is mostly out of its reach, and lab work on new processes it barely touches.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Chemical engineers conduct research and develop, advise on and direct commercial-scale chemical processes and production of various substances and items such as crude oil, petroleum derivatives, food and drink products, medicines, or synthetic materials. They direct maintenance and repair of chemical plant and equipment and study and advise on chemical aspects of particular materials, products or processes. Tasks include - (a) conducting research and advising on, and developing, commercial-scale chemical processes to refine crude oil and other liquids or gases, and to produce substances and items such as petroleum derivatives, explosives, food and drink products, medicines, or synthetic materials; (b) specifying chemical production methods, materials and quality standards and ensuring that they conform to specifications; (c) establishing control standards and procedures to ensure safety and efficiency of chemical production operations and safety of workers’ operating equipment or of those working in close proximity to ongoing chemical reactions; (d) designing chemical plant equipment and devising processes for manufacturing chemicals and products; (e) performing tests throughout stages of production to determine degree of control over variables, including temperature, density, specific gravity, and pressure; (f) developing safety procedures to be employed; (g) preparing estimates of production costs and production progress reports for management; (h) performing laboratory studies of steps in the manufacture of new products and testing proposed processes in small-scale operations such as a pilot plant. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Chemical engineer - Fuel technologist - Plastics technologist - Refinery process engineer

synthetic materials engineer
chemical engineer

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

65 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Minimal Exposure

277 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 8 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 35.2 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 35.2 = 64.8.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

This job rates 24.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Chemical engineers 65

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

Cost estimates and reports.
Process simulation.
Specifications and standards.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Safety decisions.
Scaling up processes.
Solving problems in real plants.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Green hydrogen and carbon capture.
Battery materials.
AI-assisted process optimisation.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

32 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 72 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

24 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 12 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

24 How
hands-on

12 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 17.9 · hand skill 1.7 · cramped spaces 16.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 62, against an average of 35. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

62
Preparing estimates of production costs and production progress reports for management

Medium
41
Developing safety procedures to be employed

Low
37
Specifying chemical production methods, materials and quality standards and ensuring that they conform to specifications

Low
31
Conducting research and advising on, and developing commercial-scale chemical processes to refine crude oil and other liquids or gases, and to produce substances and items such as petroleum derivatives, explosives, food and drink products, medicines, or synthetic materials

Low
31
Performing tests throughout stages of production to determine degree of control over variables, including temperature, density, specific gravity and pressure

Low
29
Establishing control standards and procedures to ensure safety and efficiency of chemical production operations and safety of workers operating equipment or of those working in close proximity to ongoing chemical reactions

Low
26
Designing chemical plant equipment and devising processes for manufacturing chemicals and products

Low
25
Performing laboratory studies of steps in manufacture of new products and testing proposed process in small scale operation such as a pilot plant.

Very Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you: 72
AI does it for you: 32

Sidekick wins, by 40 points.

How good a match is this?

3 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2331, 2339, 2342

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up under 0.01% of all the conversations: a tiny slice. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should chemical engineers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of it are changing. Cost estimates and progress reports are rated Medium, and safety procedures, specifications, process research, testing, control standards and plant design are Low; pilot plant studies rate Very Low. Simulation and AI help; accountability stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →