The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Occupation · SOC 15-1242.00 · Job Zone 4

AI exposure: Database Administrators

Administer, test, and implement computer databases, applying knowledge of database management systems. Coordinate changes to computer databases. Identify, investigate, and resolve database performance issues, database capacity, and database scalability. May plan, coordinate, and implement security measures to safeguard computer databases.

Reading this score

computed

Database Administrators sits in the top 1% of every occupation measured. 65.9% of what this job consists of, weighted by how important each task is to the role, is work current AI systems can produce with little standing in the way. Very few occupations score this high. The ones that do tend to share a trait: the output is a document, a calculation or a message, and nobody has to be in a particular room for it to count.

What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 18 tasks it averages 1.72 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.

The most exposed thing this job does is Select and enter codes to monitor database performance and to create production databases, at 86.7%. The least is Specify users and user access levels for each segment of database, at 35.0%. A gap of 51.7% 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 computer and mathematical occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 36 roles in the group is 56.7%, and only 4 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.

What would move this score. Of 18 tasks, 17 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 0 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.

Task by task

18 tasks, O*NET 31.0
TaskExposedAssistedUntouchedImportanceBand
Select and enter codes to monitor database performance and to create production databases.86.7%13.3%0.0%3.13exposed
Review procedures in database management system manuals to make changes to database.86.7%13.3%0.0%3.03exposed
Review workflow charts developed by programmer analyst to understand tasks computer will perform, such as updating records.86.7%13.3%0.0%2.78exposed
Identify and evaluate industry trends in database systems to serve as a source of information and advice for upper management.83.3%16.7%0.0%2.81exposed
Modify existing databases and database management systems or direct programmers and analysts to make changes.80.0%20.0%0.0%4.00exposed
Identify, evaluate and recommend hardware or software technologies to achieve desired database performance.76.7%23.3%0.0%3.05exposed
Provide technical support to junior staff or clients.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.46exposed
Develop standards and guidelines for the use and acquisition of software and to protect vulnerable information.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.43exposed
Develop data models describing data elements and how they are used, following procedures and using pen, template, or computer software.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.14exposed
Plan and install upgrades of database management system software to enhance database performance.67.1%20.4%12.5%3.86exposed
Test changes to database applications or systems.61.3%26.2%12.5%3.76exposed
Test programs or databases, correct errors, and make necessary modifications.61.3%26.2%12.5%3.68exposed
Write and code logical and physical database descriptions and specify identifiers of database to management system, or direct others in coding descriptions.61.3%26.2%12.5%3.15exposed
Train users and answer questions.55.0%20.0%25.0%3.56exposed
Approve, schedule, plan, and supervise the installation and testing of new products and improvements to computer systems, such as the installation of new databases.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.45exposed
Revise company definition of data as defined in data dictionary.50.0%25.0%25.0%2.70exposed
Plan, coordinate, and implement security measures to safeguard information in computer files against accidental or unauthorized damage, modification or disclosure.42.5%32.5%25.0%3.93exposed
Specify users and user access levels for each segment of database.35.0%40.0%25.0%3.80assisted

Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.

Where the score comes from

judged

Every 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.

DimensionMeanScale
Capability3.610-4
Embodiment0.170-3
Presence0.080-3
Accountability0.720-3
Context1.720-3
Verification cost1.330-3

What this means in practice

Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.

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.