AI exposure: Aviation Inspectors
Inspect aircraft, maintenance procedures, air navigational aids, air traffic controls, and communications equipment to ensure conformance with Federal safety regulations.
Reading this score
computedAt 23.8% of weighted task load, Aviation Inspectors sits at the 44th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 61.2% 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 verification cost. Across this occupation's 13 tasks it averages 2.41 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 Prepare and maintain detailed repair, inspection, investigation, and certification records and..., at 73.3%. The least is Conduct flight test programs to test equipment, instruments, and systems under a variety of..., 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 transportation and material moving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.3% across the group's 52 roles, with 27 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 13 tasks, 5 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 | 1.62 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.67 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.31 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.10 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.90 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.41 | 0-3 |
Task by task
13 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare and maintain detailed repair, inspection, investigation, and certification records and reports. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Examine maintenance records and flight logs to determine if service and maintenance checks and overhauls were performed at prescribed intervals. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Recommend replacement, repair, or modification of aircraft equipment. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Recommend changes in rules, policies, standards, and regulations, based on knowledge of operating conditions, aircraft improvements, and other factors. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.28 | exposed |
| Approve or deny issuance of certificates of airworthiness. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.56 | exposed |
| Analyze training programs and conduct oral and written examinations to ensure the competency of persons operating, installing, and repairing aircraft equipment. | 25.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 4.04 | assisted |
| Investigate air accidents and complaints to determine causes. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.70 | assisted |
| Start aircraft and observe gauges, meters, and other instruments to detect evidence of malfunctions. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Inspect work of aircraft mechanics performing maintenance, modification, or repair and overhaul of aircraft and aircraft mechanical systems to ensure adherence to standards and procedures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.71 | untouched |
| Inspect new, repaired, or modified aircraft to identify damage or defects and to assess airworthiness and conformance to standards, using checklists, hand tools, and test instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Examine landing gear, tires, and exteriors of fuselage, wings, and engines for evidence of damage or corrosion and the need for repairs. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Examine aircraft access plates and doors for security. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Conduct flight test programs to test equipment, instruments, and systems under a variety of conditions, using both manual and automatic controls. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 1 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.
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.