AI exposure: Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians
Operate, install, adjust, and maintain integrated computer/communications systems, consoles, simulators, and other data acquisition, test, and measurement instruments and equipment, which are used to launch, track, position, and evaluate air and space vehicles. May record and interpret test data.
Reading this score
computedAt 28.0% of weighted task load, Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians sits at the 50th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 52.1% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 11 tasks it averages 1.77 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Record and interpret test data on parts, assemblies, and mechanisms, at 58.3%. The least is Fabricate and install parts and systems to be tested in test equipment, at 0.0%. A gap of 58.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within architecture and engineering occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 37.5% across the group's 56 roles, with 50 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 11 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 6 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.82 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.77 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.32 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.55 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.64 | 0-3 |
Task by task
11 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record and interpret test data on parts, assemblies, and mechanisms. | 58.3% | 29.2% | 12.5% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Operate and calibrate computer systems and devices to comply with test requirements and to perform data acquisition and analysis. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Identify required data, data acquisition plans, and test parameters, setting up equipment to conform to these specifications. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.58 | exposed |
| Design electrical and mechanical systems for avionic instrumentation applications. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.88 | assisted |
| Confer with engineering personnel regarding details and implications of test procedures and results. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.45 | assisted |
| Finish vehicle instrumentation and deinstrumentation. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Inspect, diagnose, maintain, and operate test setups and equipment to detect malfunctions. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
| Adjust, repair, or replace faulty components of test setups and equipment. | 10.8% | 14.2% | 75.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Test aircraft systems under simulated operational conditions, performing systems readiness tests and pre- and post-operational checkouts, to establish design or fabrication parameters. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Construct and maintain test facilities for aircraft parts and systems, according to specifications. | 6.7% | 5.8% | 87.5% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Fabricate and install parts and systems to be tested in test equipment, using hand tools, power tools, and test instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.