Search files, databases or reference materials to obtain needed information
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 | 17 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 17 occupations that perform it.
- Gather cyber intelligence to identify vulnerabilities.
- Enter or retrieve information from structural databases, protein sequence motif databases, mutation databases, genomic databases or gene expression databases.
- Locate and deliver information or data as requested by customers, such as contractors, government entities, and members of the public.
- Retrieve and examine real estate closing files for accuracy and to ensure that information included is recorded and executed according to regulations.
- Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.
- Consult sources, such as rate books, manuals, or insurance company representatives, to determine specific charges or information such as rules, regulations, or government tax and tariff information.
- Access computerized financial information to answer general questions as well as those related to specific accounts.
- Perform record checks on past or current licensees, as required by investigations.
- Examine city directories and public records to verify residence property ownership, bankruptcies, liens, arrest record, or unpaid taxes of applicants.
- Find, retrieve, and make copies of information from files in response to requests and deliver information to authorized users.
- Examine employee files to answer inquiries and provide information for personnel actions.
- Enter, update, and retrieve information from teletype networks and computerized data systems regarding such things as wanted persons, stolen property, vehicle registration, and stolen vehicles.
- Review legal publications and perform database searches to identify laws and court decisions relevant to pending cases.
- Conduct searches to find needed information, using such sources as the Internet.
- Search for specific sets of stored, typed characters to make changes.
- Review files, records, and other documents to obtain information to respond to requests.
- Consult reference books or secure aid of readers to check references with rules of grammar and composition.
- Research information in the municipal archives upon request of public officials or private citizens.
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
17 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Billing and Posting Clerks
- Bioinformatics Technicians
- Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
- Court, Municipal, and License Clerks
- Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks
- File Clerks
- Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping
- Hydrologic Technicians
- Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Office Clerks, General
- Penetration Testers
- Proofreaders and Copy Markers
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
- Telephone Operators
- Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers
- Word Processors and Typists
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Gather information from physical or electronic sources”. 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.