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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8350

Ships' deck crews and related workers

Autopilot can steer the ship. Handling the mooring lines is still rope and muscle.

AI barely touches any of the six tasks, from steering and keeping lookout to looking after the rigging and lifesaving gear and painting the hull.

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

Ship’s deck crews and related workers carry out deck duties on board ships and similar duties on board other water-borne craft. Tasks include - (a) standing look-out watches at sea and when entering or leaving harbour or other narrow waters; (b) steering ships according to instructions; (c) handling ropes and wires, and operating mooring equipment; (d) maintaining and, in some cases, operating ships’ equipment, cargo gear, rigging, lifesaving and firefighting appliances; (e) performing deck and hull cleaning, scraping, painting and other maintenance duties as required; (f) breaking out, rigging and stowing cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging and running gear. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Boatswain - Ferry hand - Sailor - Tug hand

  • fisheries deckhand
  • sailor
  • engine minder
  • decksman
  • matrose
  • ordinary seaman
  • boatswain

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

86 / 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

65 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 14.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 14.3 = 85.7.

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 71 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?

Ships' deck crews and related workers 86

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.

  • Navigation aids and collision warnings.
  • Maintenance logs and checklists.
  • Cargo planning software.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Handling ropes, wires and mooring gear safely.
  • Keeping watch in poor conditions.
  • Emergency and firefighting duties.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Working with more automated vessels.
  • Maintaining sensors and electronics on board.
  • Lower-emission ship systems.

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

16 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 37 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

71 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 44 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

71 How
hands-on
44 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, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 45.5 · hand skill 45.5 · cramped spaces 40.4 · 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 18, against an average of 14. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 18

    Steering ship according to instructions

    Very Low
  2. 15

    Standing look-out watches at sea and when entering or leaving harbour or other narrow waters

    Very Low
  3. 15

    Handling ropes and wires, and operates mooring equipment

    Very Low
  4. 14

    Breaking out, rigging and stowing cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging and running gear.

    Very Low
  5. 13

    Maintaining and, in some cases, operating ship’s equipment, cargo gear, rigging, lifesaving and firefighting appliances

    Very Low
  6. 11

    Performing deck and hull cleaning, scraping, painting and other maintenance duties as required

    Very 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
37
AI does it for you
16

Sidekick wins, by 21 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 8992

So, should deckhands be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. Every task rates Very Low: steering, keeping lookout, mooring and maintenance. Ships are adding automation, and remotely operated vessels are being trialled, but crews still handle, maintain and keep watch.

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 →