The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Occupation · SOC 11-3051.02 · Job Zone 3

AI exposure: Geothermal Production Managers

Manage operations at geothermal power generation facilities. Maintain and monitor geothermal plant equipment for efficient and safe plant operations.

Reading this score

computed

37.9% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Geothermal Production Managers at the 67th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.5 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 17 tasks it averages 2.12 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 Communicate geothermal plant conditions to employees, at 73.3%. The least is Select and implement corrosion control or mitigation systems for geothermal plants, at 6.7%. A gap of 66.7% 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 management occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 41.4% across the group's 56 roles, with 38 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 17 tasks, 10 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 6 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take cheaper ways to verify output, since the cost of checking is currently doing more to hold this work in place than the cost of producing it. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.

Task by task

17 tasks, O*NET 31.0
TaskExposedAssistedUntouchedImportanceBand
Communicate geothermal plant conditions to employees.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.09exposed
Obtain permits for constructing, upgrading, or operating geothermal power plants.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.92exposed
Record, review, or maintain daily logs, reports, maintenance, and other records associated with geothermal operations.66.7%33.3%0.0%3.85exposed
Prepare environmental permit applications or compliance reports.66.7%33.3%0.0%4.29exposed
Develop or manage budgets for geothermal operations.55.0%20.0%25.0%3.93exposed
Conduct well field site assessments.55.0%20.0%25.0%3.77exposed
Identify and evaluate equipment, procedural, or conditional inefficiencies involving geothermal plant systems.50.0%25.0%25.0%4.01exposed
Develop operating plans and schedules for geothermal operations.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.89exposed
Monitor geothermal operations, using programmable logic controllers.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.77exposed
Identify opportunities to improve plant electrical equipment, controls, or process control methodologies.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.67exposed
Negotiate interconnection agreements with other utilities.20.0%30.0%50.0%4.16assisted
Supervise employees in geothermal power plants or well fields.11.7%13.3%75.0%4.36untouched
Oversee geothermal plant operations, maintenance, and repairs to ensure compliance with applicable standards or regulations.10.0%27.5%62.5%4.34untouched
Perform or direct the performance of preventative maintenance on geothermal plant equipment.9.2%15.8%75.0%4.00untouched
Troubleshoot and make minor repairs to geothermal plant instrumentation or electrical systems.8.3%16.7%75.0%3.46untouched
Inspect geothermal plant or injection well fields to verify proper equipment operations.6.7%18.3%75.0%3.95untouched
Select and implement corrosion control or mitigation systems for geothermal plants.6.7%18.3%75.0%3.91untouched

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
Capability2.500-4
Embodiment0.850-3
Presence0.970-3
Accountability1.350-3
Context2.120-3
Verification cost1.560-3

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.