AI exposure: Surveying and Mapping Technicians
Perform surveying and mapping duties, usually under the direction of an engineer, surveyor, cartographer, or photogrammetrist, to obtain data used for construction, mapmaking, boundary location, mining, or other purposes. May calculate mapmaking information and create maps from source data, such as surveying notes, aerial photography, satellite data, or other maps to show topographical features, political boundaries, and other features. May verify accuracy and completeness of maps.
Reading this score
computed34.3% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Surveying and Mapping Technicians at the 59th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.1 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 30 tasks it averages 1.83 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 Compare survey computations with applicable standards to determine adequacy of data, at 86.7%. The least is Analyze aerial photographs to detect and interpret significant military, industrial, resource,..., at 0.0%. A gap of 86.7% 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 architecture and engineering occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 37.5% across the group's 56 roles, with 40 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 30 tasks, 17 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 11 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compare survey computations with applicable standards to determine adequacy of data. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Search for section corners, property irons, or survey points. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.27 | exposed |
| Enter Global Positioning System (GPS) data, legal deeds, field notes, or land survey reports into geographic information system (GIS) workstations so that information can be transformed into graphic land descriptions, such as maps and drawings. | 70.0% | 17.5% | 12.5% | 4.11 | exposed |
| Calculate latitudes, longitudes, angles, areas, or other information for mapmaking, using survey field notes or reference tables. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Perform calculations to determine earth curvature corrections, atmospheric impacts on measurements, traverse closures or adjustments, azimuths, level runs, or placement of markers. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.87 | exposed |
| Compare topographical features or contour lines with images from aerial photographs, old maps, or other reference materials to verify the accuracy of their identification. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.78 | exposed |
| Complete detailed source and method notes describing the location of routine or complex land parcels. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.93 | exposed |
| Operate and manage land-information computer systems, performing tasks such as storing data, making inquiries, and producing plots and reports. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Prepare topographic or contour maps of land surveyed, including site features and other relevant information, such as charts, drawings, and survey notes. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.01 | exposed |
| Design or develop information databases that include geographic or topographic data. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.90 | exposed |
| Produce or update overlay maps to show information boundaries, water locations, or topographic features on various base maps or at different scales. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Trace contours or topographic details to generate maps that denote specific land or property locations or geographic attributes. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.59 | exposed |
| Determine scales, line sizes, or colors to be used for hard copies of computerized maps, using plotters. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.53 | exposed |
| Trim, align, and join prints to form photographic mosaics, maintaining scaled distances between reference points. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.34 | exposed |
| Prepare cost estimates for mapping projects. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.39 | exposed |
| Check all layers of maps to ensure accuracy, identifying and marking errors and making corrections. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.05 | exposed |
| Answer questions and provide information to the public or to staff members regarding assessment maps, surveys, boundaries, easements, property ownership, roads, zoning, or similar matters. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.78 | exposed |
| Provide assistance in the development of methods and procedures for conducting field surveys. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.82 | assisted |
| Monitor mapping work or the updating of maps to ensure accuracy, inclusion of new or changed information, or compliance with rules and regulations. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.93 | assisted |
| Supervise or coordinate activities of workers engaged in surveying, plotting data, drafting maps, or producing blueprints, photostats, or photographs. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Set out and recover stakes, marks, or other monumentation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Adjust and operate surveying instruments such as prisms, theodolites, electronic distance measuring equipment, or electronic data collectors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Collect information needed to carry out new surveys, using source maps, previous survey data, photographs, computer records, or other relevant information. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Record survey measurements or descriptive data, using notes, drawings, sketches, or inked tracings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Conduct surveys to ascertain the locations of natural features and man-made structures on the Earth's surface, underground, and underwater, using electronic distance-measuring equipment, such as GPS, and other surveying instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Compile information necessary to stake projects for construction, using engineering plans. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Identify and compile database information to create requested maps. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Position and hold the vertical rods, or targets, that theodolite operators use for sighting to measure angles, distances, and elevations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.91 | untouched |
| Research and combine existing property information to describe property boundaries in relation to adjacent properties, taking into account parcel splits, combinations, or land boundary adjustments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.88 | untouched |
| Analyze aerial photographs to detect and interpret significant military, industrial, resource, or topographical data. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.53 | 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 | 2.08 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.23 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.57 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.58 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.42 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.83 | 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.