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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3155

Air traffic safety electronics technicians

AI can help debug the software. Certifying the radar is still a technician's signature.

Developing and debugging system software is the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. Supervising installing and running the equipment it barely touches.

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

Air traffic safety electronics technicians perform technical tasks concerning the design, installation, management, operation, maintenance and repair of air traffic control and air navigation systems. Tasks include - (a) carrying out technical duties related to the development of electronic and computerized air navigation systems and equipment, and testing prototypes; (b) providing technical help in the design and layout of specific interface circuitry of air navigation and aircraft detection tracking systems; (c) preparing and contributing to the preparation of cost estimates and technical and training specifications for air traffic control and safety equipment; (d) providing or assisting with the technical supervision of construction, installation and operation of ground-based air navigation equipment and its maintenance and repair to ensure that standards and specifications are met; (e) applying the knowledge and skills of air traffic safety engineering principles and practices in order to identify and solve problems arising in the course of their work; (f) developing, modifying and debugging system software; (g) modifying existing ground-based air navigation systems and equipment to adapt them to new air traffic control procedures, in order to improve capability, reliability and integrity, or to facilitate air traffic control procedures and airspace designation; (h) controlling, monitoring and certifying communication navigation and surveillance air traffic management equipment, and calibrating the ground-based air navigation system to ensure maximum accuracy and safety of flight, take-off and landing operations; (i) providing technical training and supervising other workers. Example of the occupations classified here: - Air traffic safety engineer - Air traffic safety technician Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Aeronautical engineer - 2144 - Electronics engineer - 2152 - Aeromechanic - 7232 - Aircraft maintenance engineer (avionics) - 7421 - Avionics technician - 7421

  • air traffic safety technician

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

66 / 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

267 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 34.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 34.3 = 65.7.

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 49.1 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?

Air traffic safety electronics technicians 66

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.

  • Developing and debugging software.
  • Cost estimates and specifications.
  • System modifications.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Certifying and calibrating equipment.
  • Supervising installations.
  • Safety-critical judgement.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Digital and remote towers.
  • Drone detection and tracking.
  • Cyber security for air navigation.

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

47 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 35 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

49 How
hands-on
35 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 44.6 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 17.5 · 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 56, against an average of 34. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 56

    Developing, modifying and debugging system software

    Medium
  2. 43

    Carrying out technical duties related to the development of electronic and computerized air navigation systems and equipment, and testing prototypes

    Low
  3. 39

    Preparing and contributing to the preparation of cost estimates and technical and training specifications for air traffic control and safety equipment

    Low
  4. 34

    Applying the knowledge and skills of air traffic safety engineering principles and practices in order to identify and solve problems arising in the course of their work

    Low
  5. 33

    Modifying existing ground-based air navigation systems and equipment to adapt them to new air traffic control procedures, in order to improve capability, reliability and integrity, or to facilitate air traffic control procedures and airspace designation

    Low
  6. 32

    Providing technical help in the design and layout of specific interface circuitry of air navigation and aircraft detection tracking systems

    Low
  7. 26

    Providing technical training and supervising other workers.

    Low
  8. 25

    Controlling, monitoring and certifying communication navigation and surveillance air traffic management equipment and calibrating the ground-based air navigation system to ensure maximum accuracy and safety of flight, take-off and landing operations

    Low
  9. 22

    Providing or assisting with the technical supervision of construction, installation and operation of ground-based air navigation equipment and its maintenance and repair to ensure that standards and specifications are met

    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
47

Sidekick wins, by 25 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 3124, 3132

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 0.01% 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

47
53

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 air traffic safety technicians be worried?

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

Parts of it are changing. Debugging software is rated Medium, and developing systems, estimates, problem-solving, modifications, interface design, training and certification are Low; supervising installation rates Very Low. AI coding tools help; safety certification 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 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” family, averaging 65. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →