AI exposure: Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
Promote worksite or product safety by applying knowledge of industrial processes, mechanics, chemistry, psychology, and industrial health and safety laws. Includes industrial product safety engineers.
Reading this score
computedHealth and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors is one of the unusual cases where capability and friction are both high. Current systems can produce a great deal of this work, with average capability across its tasks at 2.1 out of 4. Only 29.0% of the weighted task load comes out as exposed, because 26.6% of it runs into something structural. Jobs in this band tend not to disappear. They change shape, and the person stays.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 27 tasks it averages 2.29 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Report or review findings from accident investigations, facilities inspections, or..., at 73.3%. The least is Provide expert testimony in litigation cases, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 48 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 27 tasks, 9 are currently banded exposed, 8 assisted and 10 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. 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 | 2.06 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.44 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.99 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.85 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.94 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.29 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Roles in this band tend to change shape rather than disappear. The output gets drafted faster and the person moves toward review, judgment and accountability. The useful question is not whether to use these tools but who is trusted to sign off on what they produce.
Task by task
27 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report or review findings from accident investigations, facilities inspections, or environmental testing. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Participate in preparation of product usage and precautionary label instructions. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Maintain and apply knowledge of current policies, regulations, and industrial processes. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Review plans and specifications for construction of new machinery or equipment to determine whether all safety requirements have been met. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Recommend procedures for detection, prevention, and elimination of physical, chemical, or other product hazards. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Interpret safety regulations for others interested in industrial safety, such as safety engineers, labor representatives, and safety inspectors. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.97 | exposed |
| Provide technical advice and guidance to organizations on how to handle health-related problems and make needed changes. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Develop industry standards of product safety. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.61 | exposed |
| Write and revise safety regulations and codes. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.30 | exposed |
| Confer with medical professionals to assess health risks and to develop ways to manage health issues and concerns. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.28 | assisted |
| Maintain liaisons with outside organizations, such as fire departments, mutual aid societies, and rescue teams, so that emergency responses can be facilitated. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 3.59 | assisted |
| Conduct research to evaluate safety levels for products. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.36 | assisted |
| Evaluate product designs for safety. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.32 | assisted |
| Conduct or coordinate worker training in areas such as safety laws and regulations, hazardous condition monitoring, and use of safety equipment. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.29 | assisted |
| Evaluate potential health hazards or damage that could occur from product misuse. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.22 | assisted |
| Plan and conduct industrial hygiene research. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.42 | assisted |
| Compile, analyze, and interpret statistical data related to occupational illnesses and accidents. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.37 | assisted |
| Design and build safety equipment. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.31 | untouched |
| Check floors of plants to ensure that they are strong enough to support heavy machinery. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.00 | untouched |
| Inspect facilities, machinery, or safety equipment to identify and correct potential hazards, and to ensure safety regulation compliance. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | – | untouched |
| Conduct or direct testing of air quality, noise, temperature, or radiation levels to verify compliance with health and safety regulations. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.80 | untouched |
| Investigate industrial accidents, injuries, or occupational diseases to determine causes and preventive measures. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Evaluate adequacy of actions taken to correct health inspection violations. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Interview employers and employees to obtain information about work environments and workplace incidents. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Review employee safety programs to determine their adequacy. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Install safety devices on machinery or direct device installation. | 4.6% | 7.9% | 87.5% | – | untouched |
| Provide expert testimony in litigation cases. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 2 task(s) lacked a usable O*NET weight and are shown but excluded from the weighting.
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.