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Professionals · code 2152

Electronics engineers

AI can draft the circuit and the signal algorithm. Making it work reliably is still engineering.

AI could take a fair chunk of three of the eight tasks, led by designing signal-processing algorithms and researching radar and remote-control systems. Maintenance and repair it barely touches.

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

Electronics engineers conduct research on, design, and direct the construction functioning, maintenance and repair of electronic systems, and study and advise on technological aspects of electronic engineering materials, products or processes. Tasks include - (a) advising on and designing electronic devices or components, circuits, semi-conductors, and systems; (b) specifying production or installation methods, materials and quality standards, and directing production or installation work of electronic products and systems; (c) establishing control standards and procedures to ensure efficient functioning and safety of electronic systems, motors and equipment; (d) organizing and directing maintenance and repair of existing electronic systems and equipment; (e) designing electronic circuits and components for use in fields such as aerospace guidance and propulsion control, acoustics, or instruments and controls; (f) researching and advising on radar, telemetry and remote control systems, microwaves and other electronic equipment; (g) designing and developing signal processing algorithms and implementing these through appropriate choice of hardware and software; (h) developing apparatus and procedures to test electronic components, circuits and systems. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Computer hardware engineer - Electronics engineer - Instrumentation engineer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Telecommunications engineer - 2153

  • electronics engineer

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

58 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

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: Exposed: Gradient 2

339 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 42.4 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 42.4 = 57.6.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 26.5 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?

Electronics engineers 58

v

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.

  • Signal processing algorithms.
  • Circuit and device design.
  • Research and specifications.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Testing and debugging hardware.
  • Safety and standards.
  • Production and maintenance.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Chips for AI.
  • AI-assisted chip design.
  • EVs and power electronics.

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

34 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 74 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

27 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 27 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

27 How
hands-on
27 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, averaged across 3 US jobs .

finger skill 38.8 · hand skill 30.9 · cramped spaces 11.8 · 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 61, against an average of 42. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 61

    Designing and developing signal processing algorithms and implementing these through appropriate choice of hardware and software

    Medium
  2. 55

    Researching and advising on radar, telemetry and remote control systems, microwaves and other electronic equipment

    Medium
  3. 53

    Advising on and designing electronic devices or components, circuits, semi-conductors and systems

    Medium
  4. 46

    Designing electronic circuits and components for use in fields such as aerospace guidance and propulsion control, acoustics, or instruments and controls

    Low
  5. 35

    Specifying production or installation methods, materials and quality standards, and directing production or installation work of electronic products and systems

    Low
  6. 35

    Developing apparatus and procedures to test electronic components, circuits and systems.

    Low
  7. 33

    Establishing control standards and procedures to ensure efficient functioning and safety of electronic systems, motors and equipment

    Low
  8. 22

    Organising and directing maintenance and repair of existing electronic systems and equipment

    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
74
AI does it for you
34

Sidekick wins, by 40 points.

How good a match is this?

2 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 2334, 2339

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?

Out of every 100 conversations

54
46

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. This job makes up 0.83% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 2 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

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 electronics engineers be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of the job are changing. Signal processing, radar advice and designing devices are rated Medium; circuits, production methods, testing and standards are Low; maintenance rates Very Low. AI design tools take on more; testing and responsibility stay 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 below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →