Skip to content
man bot
Compare

Technicians and associate professionals · code 3116

Chemical engineering technicians

AI can analyse the lab results. Running the pilot plant is still hands-on.

All five tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, from lab tests and process research to watching over the plant and drawing its layout.

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

Chemical engineering technicians perform technical tasks to aid in chemical engineering research and in the design, manufacture, construction, operation, maintenance and repair of chemical plant. Tasks include - (a) assisting in research on and development of industrial chemical processes, plant and equipment, or testing prototypes; (b) designing and preparing layouts of chemical plants according to the specifications given; (c) preparing detailed estimates of quantities and costs of materials and labour required for manufacture and installation, according to the specifications given; (d) monitoring technical aspects of the construction, installation, operation, maintenance and repair of chemical plants to ensure satisfactory performance and compliance with specifications and regulations; (e) conducting chemical and physical laboratory tests to assist scientists and engineers in making qualitative and quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, and gaseous materials. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Chemical engineering estimator - Chemical engineering technician Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Chemical technician - 3111 - Chemical process technician - 3133

  • chemical 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.

68 / 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

260 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 5 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 32.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 32.3 = 67.7.

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 55.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, and for work like this robots are the bigger question.

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 engineering technicians 68

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.

  • Test analysis.
  • Cost estimates.
  • Plant layouts in CAD.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Running lab tests safely.
  • Supporting pilot plants.
  • Troubleshooting processes.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Greener chemical processes.
  • Battery and hydrogen technology.
  • Lab automation.

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

33 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 67 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Some

56 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?

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 46 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

56 How
hands-on
46 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

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 47.4 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 48.3 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+

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 35, against an average of 32. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 35

    Conducting chemical and physical laboratory tests to assist scientists and engineers in making qualitative and quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, and gaseous materials.

    Low
  2. 34

    Assisting in research on and development of industrial chemical processes, plant and equipment, or testing prototypes

    Low
  3. 33

    Preparing detailed estimates of quantities and costs of materials and labour required for manufacture and installation, according to the specifications given

    Low
  4. 31

    Monitoring technical aspects of the construction, installation, operation, maintenance and repair of chemical plants to ensure satisfactory performance and compliance with specifications and regulations

    Low
  5. 30

    Designing and preparing layouts of chemical plants according to the specifications given

    Low

5 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
67
AI does it for you
33

Sidekick wins, by 34 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 3129

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, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

45
55

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 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 chemical engineering technicians be worried?

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

Parts of it are changing. Lab tests, research support, cost estimates, monitoring plants and preparing layouts are the most exposed tasks, all Low. Analysis and design software speed up the desk work; lab and plant 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 →