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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8182

Steam engine and boiler operators

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

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 137 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • 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.

80.5
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 19.5 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 19.5 = 80.5

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

69.5
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

49.6
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 59.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

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.

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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 69.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 26, while the average is 19.5. 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. 26

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

    Low
  2. 23.5

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

    Very Low
  3. 21.3

    Monitoring ship’s engine, machinery and equipment indicators, recording variables and reporting abnormalities to ship’s engineer officer on watch

    Very Low
  4. 18.5

    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
  5. 17.5

    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
  6. 15

    Operating and maintaining off-loading liquid pumps and valves.

    Very Low
  7. 14.8

    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 0.7-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
59
AI does it for you
33

Helping wins by 26 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7129

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is above that.