Develop technical methods or processes
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Producing the draft is the single thing current models are best at, and it needs no integration at all: a prompt and a couple of reference documents are enough. A person still edits it and takes responsibility for what goes out.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Drafting and content production |
| Jobs that do it | 22 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment (4.A.3.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 22 occupations that perform it.
- Identify or develop reverse-engineering tools to improve system capabilities or detect vulnerabilities.
- Develop methodologies for transferring procedures or biological processes from laboratories to commercial-scale manufacturing production.
- Develop processes to separate components of liquids or gases or generate electrical currents, using controlled chemical processes.
- Develop or implement engineering solutions to clean up industrial accidents or other contaminated sites.
- Identify design alternatives for the development of new water resources.
- Develop process flows, work instructions, or standard operating procedures for radio frequency identification device (RFID) systems.
- Develop site-specific health and safety protocols, such as spill contingency plans or methods for loading or transporting waste.
- Develop manufacturing methods, labor utilization standards, and cost analysis systems to promote efficient staff and facility utilization.
- Design or evaluate human work systems, using human factors engineering and ergonomic principles to optimize usability, cost, quality, safety, or performance.
- Identify opportunities or implement changes to improve manufacturing processes or products or to reduce costs, using knowledge of fabrication processes, tooling and production equipment, assembly methods, quality control standards, or product design, materials and parts.
- Develop or evaluate systems or methods of hydrogen storage for fuel cell applications.
- Develop or implement operating methods or procedures.
- Select or devise materials-handling methods and equipment to transport ore, waste materials, and mineral products efficiently and economically.
- Monitor production rates, and plan rework processes to improve production.
- Develop electronic, mechanical, or computerized processes to perform tasks in dangerous situations, such as underwater exploration or extraterrestrial mining.
- Develop or validate specialized materials characterization procedures, such as thermal withstand, fatigue, notch sensitivity, abrasion, or hardness tests.
- Develop processes or identify equipment needed for pilot or commercial nanoscale scale production.
- Establish and maintain inventory, records, or documentation systems.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for drafting and content production, and what it costs.
Drafting needs no tools, no integration and no platform. One $20 assistant and two reference documents beat any agent builder here, and every extra thing in this stack is cost with nothing behind it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
22 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Automotive Engineers
- Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Chemical Engineers
- Civil Engineers
- Digital Forensics Analysts
- Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians
- Environmental Engineers
- Fuel Cell Engineers
- Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists
- Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Industrial Engineers
- Intelligence Analysts
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Mechatronics Engineers
- Microsystems Engineers
- Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers
- Nanosystems Engineers
- Petroleum Engineers
- Photonics Technicians
- Radio Frequency Identification Device Specialists
- Water/Wastewater Engineers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Develop operational or technical procedures or standards”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.