Devise research or testing protocols
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 | 15 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Thinking Creatively (4.A.2.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 15 occupations that perform it.
- Design or direct bench or pilot production experiments to determine the scale of production methods that optimize product yield and minimize production costs.
- Plan or implement research methodology or procedures to apply principles of electrical theory to engineering projects.
- Formulate sampling procedures and designs and develop forms and instructions for recording, evaluating, and reporting quality and reliability data.
- Develop or implement human performance research, investigation, or analysis protocols.
- Design validation study features, such as sampling, testing, or analytical methodologies.
- Design tests of finished products or process capabilities to establish standards or validate process requirements.
- Design and oversee testing, installation, and repair of marine apparatus and equipment.
- Design or implement fuel cell testing or development programs.
- Develop calibration methodologies, test methodologies, or tools.
- Plan or schedule engineering research or development projects involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
- Design or conduct tests of new nanotechnology products, processes, or systems.
- Develop or modify wet chemical or industrial laboratory experimental techniques for nanoscale use.
- Develop or use new non-destructive testing methods, such as acoustic emission testing, leak testing, and thermal or infrared testing.
- Devise testing methods to evaluate the effects of various conditions on particular materials.
- Plan, conduct, and evaluate nutrigenomic or nutrigenetic research.
- Develop or implement research methodologies or statistical analysis plans to test and evaluate developmental prototypes used in new products or processes, such as cockpit designs, user workstations, or computerized human models.
- Prepare validation or performance qualification protocols for new or modified manufacturing processes, systems, or equipment for production of pharmaceuticals, electronics, or other products.
- Determine conditions under which tests are to be conducted, as well as sequences and phases of test operations.
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
15 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
- Dietitians and Nutritionists
- Electrical Engineers
- Fuel Cell Engineers
- Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists
- Industrial Engineers
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
- Materials Scientists
- Microsystems Engineers
- Nanosystems Engineers
- Nanotechnology Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Non-Destructive Testing Specialists
- Validation Engineers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Develop research plans or methodologies”. 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.