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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3512

Information and communications technology user support technicians

Information and communications technology user support technicians provide technical assistance to users, either directly or by telephone, email or other electronic means, including diagnosing and resolving issues and problems with software, hardware, computer peripheral equipment, networks, databases and the Internet, and providing guidance and support in the deployment, installation and maintenance of systems. Tasks include - (a) answering user inquiries regarding software or hardware operation to resolve problems; (b) entering commands and observing system functioning to verify correct operations and detect errors; (c) installing and performing minor repairs to hardware, software or peripheral equipment, following design or installation specifications; (d) overseeing the daily performance of communications and computer systems; (e) setting up equipment for employee use and performing or ensuring proper installation of cables, operating systems or appropriate software; (f) maintaining records of daily data communication transactions, problems and remedial actions taken, or installation activities; (g) emulating or reproducing technical problems encountered by users; (h) consulting user guides, technical manuals and other documents to research and implement solutions; (i) assisting applications programmers, systems developers and other ICT professionals to develop and test ICT products and services. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Communications assistant (ICT) - Computer database assistant - Computer help desk operator - Computer programming assistant - Computer systems analysis assistant

A good share of the tasks are affected. It ranks 363 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • ICT help desk manager
  • ICT help desk agent
  • ICT security technician
  • ICT technician

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

53
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 2

AI could take on 47 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 47 = 53

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

36.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

30.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 41.1 · hand skill 32.1 · cramped spaces 17.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

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.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 36.8 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.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 66.5, while the average is 47. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 66.5

    Consulting user guides, technical manuals and other documents to research and implement solutions

    Medium
  2. 63.5

    Assisting applications programmers, systems developers and other ICT professionals to develop and test ICT products and services.

    Medium
  3. 63

    Answering user inquiries regarding software or hardware operation to resolve problems

    Medium
  4. 57.5

    Maintaining records of daily data communication transactions, problems and remedial actions taken, or installation activities.

    Medium
  5. 55

    Emulating or reproducing technical problems encountered by users

    Medium
  6. 46.5

    Overseeing the daily performance of communications and computer systems

    Low
  7. 30

    Entering commands and observing system functioning to verify correct operations and detect errors

    Low
  8. 27

    Setting up equipment for employee use and performing or ensuring proper installation of cables, operating systems or appropriate software

    Low
  9. 14.3

    Installing and performing minor repairs to hardware, software or peripheral equipment, following design or installation specifications

    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 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

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

AI helps you
69
AI does it for you
53

Helping wins by 16 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3131

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.5. This one is below that.