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Professionals · code 2162

Landscape architects

AI can analyse the site data. Designing a park people want to spend time in is still design.

Eight of the nine tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, including analysing the site and writing specifications. Checking the build against the plans it barely touches.

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

Landscape architects plan and design landscapes and open spaces for projects such as parks, schools, institutions, roads, external areas for commercial, industrial and residential sites, and plan and monitor their construction, maintenance and rehabilitation. Tasks include - (a) developing new or improved theories and methods and providing advice on policy related to landscape architecture; (b) inspecting sites and consulting clients, management and other stakeholders to determine type, style and size of proposed buildings, parks, roads and other open spaces; (c) compiling and analysing site and community data about geographical and ecological features, landforms, soils, vegetation, site hydrology, visual characteristics and human-made structures, to formulate land use and development recommendations, feasibility studies and environmental impact statements; (d) preparing reports, strategic plans, site plans, working drawings, specifications and cost estimates for land development, showing location and details of proposals, including ground modelling, structures, vegetation and access; (e) writing specifications and contract documents for use by builders and civil engineering contractors and calling tenders on behalf of clients; (f) making necessary contacts to ensure feasibility of projects regarding style, cost, timing and compliance with regulations; (g) identifying and finding best solutions for problems regarding function and quality of exterior environments and making necessary designs, drawings and plans; (h) monitoring construction or rehabilitation work to ensure compliance with specifications and quality standards; (i) maintaining technical liaison and consultancy with other relevant specialists. Example of the occupations classified here: - Landscape architect Some related occupations classified elsewhere: -Building architect - 2161 - Urban planner - 2164

  • landscape architect

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

63 / 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

301 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 9 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 37.1 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 37.1 = 62.9.

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 21.6 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?

Landscape architects 63

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.

  • Site and community data analysis.
  • Plans, drawings and cost estimates.
  • Specifications and tenders.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Understanding places and communities.
  • Design judgement.
  • Overseeing construction.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Climate adaptation and flood design.
  • Biodiversity net gain.
  • Green infrastructure in cities.

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: Medium

46 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 72 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

22 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 18 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

22 How
hands-on
18 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 26.9 · hand skill 23.1 · cramped spaces 5 · 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 47, against an average of 37. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 47

    Compiling and analysing site and community data about geographical and ecological features, landforms, soils, vegetation, site hydrology, visual characteristics and human-made structures, to formulate land use and development recommendations, feasibility studies and environmental impact statements

    Low
  2. 44

    Writing specifications and contract documents for use by builders and civil engineering contractors and calling tenders on behalf of clients

    Low
  3. 42

    Preparing reports, strategic plans, site plans, working drawings, specifications and cost estimates for land development, showing location and details of proposals, including ground modelling, structures, vegetation and access

    Low
  4. 41

    Identifying and finding best solutions for problems regarding function and quality of exterior environments and making necessary designs, drawings and plans

    Low
  5. 39

    Making necessary contacts to ensure feasibility of projects regarding style, cost, timing and compliance with regulations

    Low
  6. 37

    Maintaining technical liaison and consultancy with other relevant specialists.

    Low
  7. 36

    Developing new or improved theories and methods and providing advice on policy related to landscape architecture

    Low
  8. 27

    Inspecting sites and consulting clients, management and other stakeholders to determine type, style and size of proposed buildings, parks, roads and other open spaces

    Low
  9. 22

    Monitoring construction or rehabilitation work to ensure compliance with specifications and quality standards

    Very Low

9 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
46

Sidekick wins, by 26 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2321

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 0.02% 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

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.

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 landscape architects be worried?

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

Parts of the job are changing. Site data, specifications, reports and plans, design problems, feasibility, liaison, theory and site consultation all rate Low; monitoring construction rates Very Low. AI speeds up analysis and drawings; understanding places and people 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 →