Technicians and associate professionals · code 3112

Civil engineering technicians

AI can estimate the materials. Testing the soil on site is still fieldwork.

Six of the nine tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, including cost estimates and technical help on building projects. Testing soils and materials and organising repairs it barely touches.

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

Civil engineering technicians perform technical tasks in civil engineering research and in the design, construction, operation, maintenance and repair of buildings and other structures such as water supply and wastewater treatment systems, bridges, roads, dams and airports. Tasks include - (a) performing or assisting with field and laboratory tests of soils and construction materials; (b) providing technical assistance connected with the construction of buildings and other structures, and with surveys or the preparation of survey reports; (c) ensuring compliance with design specifications, relevant legislation and regulations, and maintenance of desired standards of materials and work; (d) applying technical knowledge of building and civil engineering principles and practices in order to identify and solve problems arising; (e) assisting with the preparation of detailed estimates of quantities and costs of materials and labour required for projects, according to the specifications given; (f) organizing maintenance and repairs; (g) inspecting buildings and structures during and after construction to ensure that they comply with building, grading, zoning and safety laws and approved plans, specifications and standards, as well as with other rules concerning quality and safety of buildings; (h) inspecting industrial plant, hotels, cinemas and other buildings and structures to detect fire hazards and advise on how they can be removed; (i) advising on the installation of fire detectors and sprinkler systems and the use of materials in the construction of buildings, and means of transportation to reduce risk of fire and extent of damage and danger if fire occurs. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Building inspector - Building surveyor - Civil engineering technician - Clerk of works - Fire inspector - Fire prevention specialist - Geotechnical technician - Surveying technician Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Quantity surveyor - 2149 - Marine surveyor - 3115 - Fire investigator - 3119

corrosion technician
energy consultant
construction safety inspector
construction safety manager
energy analyst
energy conservation officer
railway infrastructure inspector
surveying technician
civil engineering technician

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

72 / 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: Not Exposed

219 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 27.6 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 27.6 = 72.4.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

This job rates 48.8 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?

Civil engineering technicians 72

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 and quantity estimates.
Compliance checks against plans.
Survey and design support.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Site inspections.
Soil and materials testing.
Organising repairs and maintenance.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Drone surveys and 3D site models.
Energy efficiency and retrofit assessments.
Climate resilience projects.

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: Some

49 how hands-on

A fair part of this job is hands-on, so robots would be needed for that part, not just software.

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

49 How
hands-on

34 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 6 US jobs .

finger skill 33.8 · hand skill 31.8 · cramped spaces 35.6 · 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 41, against an average of 28. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

41
Assisting with the preparation of detailed estimates of quantities and costs of materials and labour required for projects, according to the specifications given

Low
36
Providing technical assistance connected with the construction of buildings and other structures, and with surveys or the preparation of survey reports

Low
31
Ensuring compliance with design specifications, relevant legislation and regulations, and maintenance of desired standards of materials and work

Low
28
Applying technical knowledge of building and civil engineering principles and practices in order to identify and solve problems arising

Low
27
Advising on the installation of fire detectors and sprinkler systems and the use of materials in the construction of buildings, and means of transportation to reduce risk of fire and extent of damage and danger if fire occurs.

Low
26
Inspecting buildings and structures during and after construction to ensure that they comply with building, grading, zoning and safety laws and approved plans, specifications and standards, as well as with other rules concerning quality and safety of buildings

Low
24
Inspecting industrial plant, hotels, cinemas and other buildings and structures to detect fire hazards and advise on how they can be removed

Very Low
20
Performing or assisting with field and laboratory tests of soils and construction materials

Very Low
17
Organizing maintenance and repairs

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?

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 3121, 3122

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 0.07% 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.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 6 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 civil engineering technicians be worried?

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

Parts of it are changing. Estimates, technical assistance, compliance checks, problem-solving, fire safety advice and inspections are the most exposed tasks, all Low; fire hazard inspections, soil tests and maintenance rate Very Low. Software speeds up the desk work; site and lab work stay practical.

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 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” family, averaging 65. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →