Provide technical guidance to other personnel
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
Software drafts well and sends at volume, and vertical support agents now resolve a large share of inbound questions end to end. What does not transfer is the relationship, and the judgment about when a message should not be sent at all.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Routine communication and explanation |
| Jobs that do it | 15 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Vertical agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Providing Consultation and Advice to Others (4.A.4.b.6) |
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.
- Provide technical support to computer users for installation and use of security products.
- Mentor others on mathematical techniques.
- Provide technical direction or supervision to junior engineers, engineering or computer-aided design (CAD) technicians, or other technical personnel.
- Provide training and support to system designers and users.
- Provide technical support or instruction to staff or customers regarding electronics equipment standards.
- Provide technical expertise or support related to manufacturing.
- Provide technical consultation or direction related to the development or production of fuel cell systems.
- Provide technical direction to other engineers or engineering support personnel.
- Provide consultation or training on topics such as mechatronics or automated control.
- Provide scientific or technical guidance or expertise to scientists, engineers, technologists, technicians, or others, using knowledge of chemical, analytical, or biological processes as applied to micro and nanoscale systems.
- Provide engineering technical support to designers of prototype wind turbines.
- Provide technical direction or support to installation teams during installation, start-up, testing, system commissioning, or performance monitoring.
- Represent architect or engineer on construction site, ensuring builder compliance with design specifications and advising on design corrections, under supervision.
- Provide technical engineering support in the planning of projects, such as wastewater treatment plants, to ensure compliance with environmental regulations and policies.
- Provide technical support to other employees regarding mechanical design, fabrication, testing, or documentation.
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 routine communication and explanation, and what it costs.
Drafting replies costs nothing beyond the assistant you already pay for. Only move to a support agent billed per resolution once the inbound volume is large enough that the per-resolution price beats the hour it takes you.
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.
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.
- Architectural and Civil Drafters
- Automotive Engineers
- Computer Hardware Engineers
- Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
- Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Fuel Cell Engineers
- Information Security Engineers
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Mathematicians
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Mechatronics Engineers
- Nanosystems Engineers
- Solar Energy Systems Engineers
- Water/Wastewater Engineers
- Wind Energy Engineers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Advise others on the design or use of technologies”. 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.