Observe individuals' activities to gather information or compile evidence
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can find, read and summarise the sources this work depends on, and it can cover far more of them than a person would ever open. What it does not do is decide which sources deserve trust, or what the findings mean for your situation.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Research and retrieval work |
| Jobs that do it | 9 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Web, data and docs, Generalist agents |
| O*NET activity | Getting Information (4.A.1.a.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 9 occupations that perform it.
- Conduct research to generate new knowledge that can be used to address learning and behavior issues.
- Observe students during classroom and play activities to evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Research and study players and teams to anticipate issues that might arise in future engagements.
- Obtain and verify evidence by interviewing and observing suspects and witnesses or by analyzing records.
- Gather intelligence information by field observation, confidential information sources, or public records.
- Survey areas and compile figures of bag counts of hunters to determine the effectiveness of control measures.
- Observe and document activities of individuals to detect unlawful acts or to obtain evidence for cases, using binoculars and still or video cameras.
- Review video surveillance footage.
- Observe activities in assigned areas, using binoculars, to detect hazards, disturbances, or safety infractions.
- Question individuals or observe persons and establishments to confirm information given to patrol officers.
- Observe casino or casino hotel operations for irregular activities, such as cheating or theft by employees or patrons, using audio and video equipment and one-way mirrors.
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 research and retrieval work, and what it costs.
Research is the one shape of work that needs no integration at all, so a single $20 assistant with browsing is the whole stack. Add a crawler only once you are pulling hundreds of pages on a schedule rather than reading a few.
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
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
- Fish and Game Wardens
- Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators
- Intelligence Analysts
- Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers
- Private Detectives and Investigators
- School Psychologists
- Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Investigate individuals' background, behavior, or activities”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Investigate personal characteristics or activities of individuals | 4 |
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.