AI exposure: Precision Agriculture Technicians
Apply geospatial technologies, including geographic information systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS), to agricultural production or management activities, such as pest scouting, site-specific pesticide application, yield mapping, or variable-rate irrigation. May use computers to develop or analyze maps or remote sensing images to compare physical topography with data on soils, fertilizer, pests, or weather.
Reading this score
computed47.4% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Precision Agriculture Technicians at the 86th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.9 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 verification cost. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 1.86 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 Use geospatial technology to develop soil sampling grids or identify sampling sites for testing..., at 73.3%. The least is Collect information about soil or field attributes, yield data, or field boundaries, at 10.0%. A gap of 63.3% 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 life, physical and social science occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 60 roles in the group is 35.8%, and only 7 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 22 tasks, 17 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 3 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
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use geospatial technology to develop soil sampling grids or identify sampling sites for testing characteristics such as nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium content, pH, or micronutrients. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Identify spatial coordinates, using remote sensing and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Recommend best crop varieties or seeding rates for specific field areas, based on analysis of geospatial data. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.73 | exposed |
| Prepare reports in graphical or tabular form, summarizing field productivity or profitability. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Identify areas in need of pesticide treatment by analyzing geospatial data to determine insect movement and damage patterns. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.05 | exposed |
| Divide agricultural fields into georeferenced zones, based on soil characteristics and production potentials. | 61.3% | 26.2% | 12.5% | 4.14 | exposed |
| Create, layer, and analyze maps showing precision agricultural data, such as crop yields, soil characteristics, input applications, terrain, drainage patterns, or field management history. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.05 | exposed |
| Analyze geospatial data to determine agricultural implications of factors such as soil quality, terrain, field productivity, fertilizers, or weather conditions. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Analyze data from harvester monitors to develop yield maps. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.95 | exposed |
| Demonstrate the applications of geospatial technology, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), automatic tractor guidance systems, variable rate chemical input applicators, surveying equipment, or computer mapping software. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Draw or read maps, such as soil, contour, or plat maps. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Provide advice on the development or application of better boom-spray technology to limit the overapplication of chemicals and to reduce the migration of chemicals beyond the fields being treated. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.62 | exposed |
| Advise farmers on upgrading Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment to take advantage of newly installed advanced satellite technology. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.24 | exposed |
| Document and maintain records of precision agriculture information. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Compare crop yield maps with maps of soil test data, chemical application patterns, or other information to develop site-specific crop management plans. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Analyze remote sensing imagery to identify relationships between soil quality, crop canopy densities, light reflectance, and weather history. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.27 | exposed |
| Apply precision agriculture information to specifically reduce the negative environmental impacts of farming practices. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Contact equipment manufacturers for technical assistance, as needed. | 31.2% | 31.2% | 37.5% | 3.18 | assisted |
| Participate in efforts to advance precision agriculture technology, such as developing advanced weed identification or automated spot spraying systems. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.35 | assisted |
| Program farm equipment, such as variable-rate planting equipment or pesticide sprayers, based on input from crop scouting and analysis of field condition variability. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.62 | untouched |
| Install, calibrate, or maintain sensors, mechanical controls, GPS-based vehicle guidance systems, or computer settings. | 10.8% | 14.2% | 75.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
| Collect information about soil or field attributes, yield data, or field boundaries, using field data recorders and basic geographic information systems (GIS). | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.22 | 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 | 2.91 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.73 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.27 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.07 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.77 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.86 | 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.