AI exposure: Curators
Administer collections, such as artwork, collectibles, historic items, or scientific specimens of museums or other institutions. May conduct instructional, research, or public service activities of institution.
Reading this score
computed46.4% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Curators at the 84th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.7 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 15 tasks it averages 1.74 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 Plan and conduct special research projects in area of interest or expertise, at 86.7%. The least is Inspect premises to assess the need for repairs and to ensure that climate and pest control..., at 10.6%. A gap of 76.1% 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 educational instruction and library occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 62 roles in the group is 41.9%, and only 3 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 15 tasks, 11 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 3 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
15 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan and conduct special research projects in area of interest or expertise. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.03 | exposed |
| Provide information from the institution's holdings to other curators and to the public. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Write and review grant proposals, journal articles, institutional reports, and publicity materials. | 59.3% | 24.1% | 16.7% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Develop and maintain an institution's registration, cataloging, and basic record-keeping systems, using computer databases. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.15 | exposed |
| Design, organize, or conduct tours, workshops, and instructional or educational sessions to acquaint individuals with an institution's facilities and materials. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Schedule events and organize details, including refreshment, entertainment, decorations, and the collection of any fees. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 2.82 | exposed |
| Confer with the board of directors to formulate and interpret policies, to determine budget requirements, and to plan overall operations. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.52 | exposed |
| Attend meetings, conventions, and civic events to promote use of institution's services, to seek financing, and to maintain community alliances. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Arrange insurance coverage for objects on loan or for special exhibits and recommend changes in coverage for the entire collection. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.31 | exposed |
| Negotiate and authorize purchase, sale, exchange, or loan of collections. | 39.6% | 22.9% | 37.5% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Establish specifications for reproductions and oversee their manufacture or select items from commercially available replica sources. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 2.46 | exposed |
| Plan and organize the acquisition, storage, and exhibition of collections and related materials, including the selection of exhibition themes and designs, and develop or install exhibit materials. | 28.7% | 8.8% | 62.5% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Study, examine, and test acquisitions to authenticate their origin, composition, history, and to assess their current value. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.84 | assisted |
| Train and supervise curatorial, fiscal, technical, research, and clerical staff, as well as volunteers or interns. | 20.0% | 17.5% | 62.5% | 3.63 | untouched |
| Inspect premises to assess the need for repairs and to ensure that climate and pest control issues are addressed. | 10.6% | 14.4% | 75.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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 | 2.66 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.67 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.90 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.69 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.74 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.20 | 0-3 |
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.