Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8182

Steam engine and boiler operators

Sensors can read the gauges. Someone still has to act when the boiler misbehaves.

Keeping an eye on how the equipment is running is mostly out of AI's reach. It barely touches six of the seven tasks, including taking readings, minor repairs and firing boilers.

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

Steam engine and boiler operators maintain and operate various types of steam engines, boilers, turbines and auxiliary equipment to provide power and other utility services for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings, at work sites and aboard ships or self-propelled vessels. Tasks include - (a) operating, cleaning, lubricating and monitoring steam engines, boilers and auxiliary equipment such as pumps, compressors and air-conditioning equipment to supply and maintain steam and power for buildings, marine vessels or pneumatic tools; (b) analysing and recording instrument readings, troubleshooting and performing minor repairs to prevent equipment or system failure; (c) monitoring and inspecting performance of equipment for efficient operation and ensuring that boiler water, chemicals and fuel are maintained at required levels; (d) firing coal furnaces by hand or with stokers and gas- or oil-fed boilers, using automatic gas feeds or oil pumps; (e) testing boiler water quality or arranging for testing, adjusting and taking necessary corrective action, such as adding chemicals to prevent corrosion and harmful deposits; (f) monitoring ship’s engine, machinery and equipment indicators, recording variables and reporting abnormalities to the ship’s engineer officer on watch; (g) operating and maintaining off-loading liquid pumps and valves. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Boiler tender - Ship’s boiler operator - Stationary engineer - Steam engine operator - Stoker Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Ship’s engineer - 3151 - Stationary engine fitter - 7233

steam plant operator
boiler operator

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

81 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

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

137 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 19.5 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 19.5 = 80.5.

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.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 70 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Steam engine and boiler operators 81

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.

Automated monitoring and alarms.
Recording instrument readings.
Maintenance scheduling.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Troubleshooting and minor repairs.
Responding to abnormal conditions.
Keeping plant safe.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Heat pumps and low-carbon boilers.
Remote plant monitoring.
Energy efficiency reporting.

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 59 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

70 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

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

70 How
hands-on

50 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, matched to one US job .

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 59.5 · 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 26, against an average of 20. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

26
Monitoring and inspecting performance of equipment for efficient operation and ensuring boiler water, chemical, and fuel are maintained at required levels

Low
24
Analysing and recording instrument readings, troubleshooting and performing minor repairs to prevent equipment or system failure

Very Low
21
Monitoring ship‚Äôs engine, machinery and equipment indicators, recording variables and reporting abnormalities to ship‚Äôs engineer officer on watch

Very Low
19
Testing boiler water quality or arrange for testing, adjusting and taking necessary corrective action, such as adding chemicals to prevent corrosion and harmful deposits

Very Low
18
Operating, cleaning, lubricating and monitoring steam engines, boilers and auxiliary equipment such as pumps, compressors and air-conditioning equipment to supply and maintain steam and power for buildings, marine vessels or pneumatic tools

Very Low
15
Operating and maintaining off-loading liquid pumps and valves.

Very Low
15
Firing coal furnaces by hand or with stokers and gas- or oil-fed boilers, using automatic gas feeds or oil pumps

Very Low

7 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: 59
AI does it for you: 33

Sidekick wins, by 26 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 7129

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?

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. This job makes up 0.45% of the conversations.

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 boiler and steam plant operators be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. The most exposed task is monitoring equipment performance, rated Low; troubleshooting, testing water and operating plant rate Very Low. Automated controls already run much of the plant, so operators oversee systems and fix problems.

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 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” family, averaging 80. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →