AI exposure: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
Operate one or several types of power construction equipment, such as motor graders, bulldozers, scrapers, compressors, pumps, derricks, shovels, tractors, or front-end loaders to excavate, move, and grade earth, erect structures, or pour concrete or other hard surface pavement. May repair and maintain equipment in addition to other duties.
Reading this score
computedOperating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 7.4% of weighted task load, rank 841 of 923. 86.7% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 26 tasks it averages 2.71 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 Keep records of material or equipment usage or problems encountered, at 50.0%. The least is Operate compactors, scrapers, or rollers to level, compact, or cover refuse at disposal grounds, at 0.0%. A gap of 50.0% 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 construction and extraction occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 61 roles in the group is 5.0%, and only 20 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 26 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 23 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 | 0.60 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.71 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.71 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.98 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.13 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.23 | 0-3 |
Task by task
26 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep records of material or equipment usage or problems encountered. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.82 | exposed |
| Talk to clients and study instructions, plans, or diagrams to establish work requirements. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Turn valves to control air or water output of compressors or pumps. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 3.06 | exposed |
| Select and fasten bulldozer blades or other attachments to tractors, using hitches. | 23.8% | 13.8% | 62.5% | 4.10 | untouched |
| Learn and follow safety regulations. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.86 | untouched |
| Locate underground services, such as pipes or wires, prior to beginning work. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Drive tractor-trailer trucks to move equipment from site to site. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Test atmosphere for adequate oxygen or explosive conditions when working in confined spaces. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.22 | untouched |
| Monitor operations to ensure that health and safety standards are met. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Check fuel supplies at sites to ensure adequate availability. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Take actions to avoid potential hazards or obstructions, such as utility lines, other equipment, other workers, or falling objects. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Start engines, move throttles, switches, or levers, or depress pedals to operate machines, such as bulldozers, trench excavators, road graders, or backhoes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Coordinate machine actions with other activities, positioning or moving loads in response to hand or audio signals from crew members. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.53 | untouched |
| Align machines, cutterheads, or depth gauge makers with reference stakes and guidelines or ground or position equipment, following hand signals of other workers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Signal operators to guide movement of tractor-drawn machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Repair and maintain equipment, making emergency adjustments or assisting with major repairs as necessary. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Load and move dirt, rocks, equipment, or other materials, using trucks, crawler tractors, power cranes, shovels, graders, or related equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| Drive and maneuver equipment equipped with blades in successive passes over working areas to remove topsoil, vegetation, or rocks or to distribute and level earth or terrain. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Operate tractors or bulldozers to perform such tasks as clearing land, mixing sludge, trimming backfills, or building roadways or parking lots. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Connect hydraulic hoses, belts, mechanical linkages, or power takeoff shafts to tractors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Operate loaders to pull out stumps, rip asphalt or concrete, rough-grade properties, bury refuse, or perform general cleanup. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Operate equipment to demolish or remove debris or to remove snow from streets, roads, or parking lots. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.84 | untouched |
| Adjust handwheels and depress pedals to control attachments, such as blades, buckets, scrapers, or swing booms. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.82 | untouched |
| Push other equipment when extra traction or assistance is required. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Operate road watering, oiling, or rolling equipment, or street sealing equipment, such as chip spreaders. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.44 | untouched |
| Operate compactors, scrapers, or rollers to level, compact, or cover refuse at disposal grounds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.33 | 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.