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Gather information from physical or electronic sources

Work activity · O*NET

Gather information from physical or electronic sources is an intermediate work activity in the O*NET database — a concrete task that recurs across many occupations , grouped under Getting Information. 50 occupations report doing it as part of their work.

What it involves

The most common detailed activities O*NET records under this category, ranked by how many occupation tasks map to each.

  • Search files, databases or reference materials to obtain needed information
  • Collect archival data
  • Obtain property information
  • Gather financial records
  • Use databases to locate investigation details or other information
  • Gather information in order to provide services to clients
  • Search information sources to find specific data
  • Retrieve information from electronic sources

How AI is applied to this activity

Microsoft's "Working with AI" study mapped real Bing Copilot conversations to O*NET work activities. The figures below are their measurements for this activity — they describe how AI is used today in one assistant's data, not a forecast that the activity will be automated.

AI completes it successfully 86.9% When Copilot attempts this activity, how often it finishes the task
Scope AI handles 55.6% How much of the activity AI carries within a conversation
Positive user feedback 66.1% Share of interactions users rated positively
How often AI is applied here 99th pct Percentile across all measured activities by how often AI performs them

Source: Microsoft "Working with AI" (working-with-ai). A high completion rate means AI can assist the activity in isolation — it does not mean an occupation that performs it is being automated, since every job blends many activities.

Detailed work activities

The more granular units of work O*NET groups under this activity, ordered by how many occupations perform them.

Occupations that perform this activity

Ranked by how many of the occupation's tasks map to this activity.

Occupation Tasks
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks 3
Document Management Specialists 3
Real Estate Sales Agents 3
Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers 3
Appraisers and Assessors of Real Estate 2
Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians 2
Historians 2
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping 2
Intelligence Analysts 2
Librarians and Media Collections Specialists 2
Proofreaders and Copy Markers 2
Real Estate Brokers 2
Anthropologists and Archeologists 1
Appraisers of Personal and Business Property 1
Archivists 1
Billing and Posting Clerks 1
Bioinformatics Technicians 1
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks 1
Budget Analysts 1
Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators 1
Clinical Data Managers 1
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 1
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks 1
Customs and Border Protection Officers 1
Detectives and Criminal Investigators 1
Farm and Home Management Educators 1
File Clerks 1
Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts 1
Geographers 1
Hydrologic Technicians 1
Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants 1
Library Technicians 1
Loan Officers 1
Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers 1
Office Clerks, General 1
Parking Enforcement Workers 1
Penetration Testers 1
Police Identification and Records Officers 1
Private Detectives and Investigators 1
Public Safety Telecommunicators 1

Showing 40 of 50 occupations.

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay AI task-overlap (horizontal) versus median pay (vertical), each as a percentile across all scored occupations, for 38 occupations in occupations that perform Gather information from physical or electronic sources.. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers Parking Enforcement Workers Customs and Border Protection Officers Detectives and Criminal Investigators Private Detectives and Investigators Library Technicians Anthropologists and Archeologists Farm and Home Management Educators Office Clerks, General Archivists Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks Historians Geographers Penetration Testers AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
Occupations that perform Gather information from physical or electronic sources., by AI task-overlap and median pay

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Gather information from physical or electronic sources." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/activities/gather-information-from-physical-or-electronic-sources

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Gather information from physical or electronic sources. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/activities/gather-information-from-physical-or-electronic-sources

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-gather-information-from-physical-or-electronic-sources,
  title  = {Gather information from physical or electronic sources},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/activities/gather-information-from-physical-or-electronic-sources}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.