AI exposure: Technical Writers
Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.
Reading this score
computedTechnical Writers sits in the top 1% of every occupation measured. 68.9% of what this job consists of, weighted by how important each task is to the role, is work current AI systems can produce with little standing in the way. Very few occupations score this high. The ones that do tend to share a trait: the output is a document, a calculation or a message, and nobody has to be in a particular room for it to count.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is context at 1.50 out of 3 and the weakest is presence at 0.27, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Edit, standardize, or make changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment..., at 93.3%. The least is Arrange for typing, duplication, and distribution of material, at 23.3%. A gap of 70.0% 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 arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 40 roles in the group is 36.4%, and only 0 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, 14 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 0 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit, standardize, or make changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment personnel. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.69 | exposed |
| Review published materials and recommend revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of reproduction and binding. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.25 | exposed |
| Analyze developments in specific field to determine need for revisions in previously published materials and development of new material. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Develop or maintain online help documentation. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Interview production and engineering personnel and read journals and other material to become familiar with product technologies and production methods. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Organize material and complete writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology. | 83.3% | 16.7% | 0.0% | 4.78 | exposed |
| Maintain records and files of work and revisions. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Assist in laying out material for publication. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Observe production, developmental, and experimental activities to determine operating procedure and detail. | 61.3% | 26.2% | 12.5% | 3.61 | exposed |
| Select photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and charts to illustrate material. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.11 | exposed |
| Confer with customer representatives, vendors, plant executives, or publisher to establish technical specifications and to determine subject material to be developed for publication. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Draw sketches to illustrate specified materials or assembly sequence. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 3.15 | exposed |
| Study drawings, specifications, mockups, and product samples to integrate and delineate technology, operating procedure, and production sequence and detail. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.39 | exposed |
| Review manufacturer's and trade catalogs, drawings and other data relative to operation, maintenance, and service of equipment. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.79 | exposed |
| Arrange for typing, duplication, and distribution of material. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.32 | assisted |
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 | 3.23 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.40 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.27 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.50 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.93 | 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.