Read work orders or other instructions to determine product specifications or materials requirements.
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 | 38 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Web, data and docs, Generalist agents, Builders, Models and routing |
| O*NET activity | Getting Information (4.A.1.a.1) |
What could do this work.
These are the categories of tool that address research and retrieval work, with a few live examples from our landscape. We name the category rather than promise that a specific product does your specific task, because that promise would not be true.
Web, data and docs
Generalist agents
Builders
Models and routing
Categories are matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Before committing to any of them, check that the tool can reach the system your record actually lives in. That connection, not the model, is where most of these projects stall.
Who does this work.
38 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Dental Laboratory Technicians
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders
- Furniture Finishers
- Gas Plant Operators
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Medical Appliance Technicians
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Printing Press Operators
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
- Team Assemblers
- Upholsterers
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Read documents or materials to inform work processes”. 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.