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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3513

Computer network and systems technicians

AI can suggest a fix for the network. Crawling under the desk to replace the cable is still you.

Helping users with network problems is the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. Running and troubleshooting networks and installing hardware and software are mostly out of its reach.

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

Computer network and systems technicians establish, operate and maintain network and other data communications systems. Tasks include - (a) operating, maintaining and troubleshooting network systems; (b) operating and maintaining data communications systems other than networks; (c) assisting users with network and data communications problems; (d) identifying areas needing upgraded equipment and software; (e) installing computer hardware, network software, operating system software and applications software; (f) performing start up and close down as well as backup and disaster recovery operations for computer networks. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Computer network technician - Network support technician Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Network administrator - 2522 - Network analyst - 2523 - Computer operator - 3511 - Web technician - 3514

  • ICT network technician
  • aviation data communications manager

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

57 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

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: Exposed: Gradient 2

343 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 6 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 43 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 43 = 57.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 30.3 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?

Computer network and systems technicians 57

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.

  • First-line user support.
  • Monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • Backup routines.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Installing hardware.
  • Fixing physical faults.
  • Disaster recovery.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Network automation.
  • Cyber security.
  • Wi-Fi and 5G installations.

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

53 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 69 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

30 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 40 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

30 How
hands-on
40 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 41.1 · hand skill 32.1 · cramped spaces 48 · 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 55, against an average of 43. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 55

    Assisting users with network and data communications problems

    Medium
  2. 49

    Operating, maintaining and troubleshooting network systems

    Low
  3. 46

    Performing start up and close down as well as backup and disaster recovery operations for computer networks.

    Low
  4. 40

    Operating and maintaining data communications systems other than networks

    Low
  5. 36

    Identifying areas needing upgraded equipment and software

    Low
  6. 33

    Installing computer hardware, network software, operating system software and applications software

    Low

6 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
69
AI does it for you
53

Sidekick wins, by 16 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 3131

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 0.08% 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

20
80

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 network technicians be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of it are changing. Helping users is rated Medium; maintaining networks, backups, communications, upgrades and installing hardware are Low. AI support tools take on more first-line help; hands-on work 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 66. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →