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Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings

Work activity group · O*NET

Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings is one of the 41 Generalized Work Activities at the top of O*NET's work-activity hierarchy — the broadest description of what people do on the job, sitting above the more specific intermediate and detailed work activities. Across the 894 occupations O*NET rates on it, it scores an average importance of 3.59 of 5 — 74th percentile among all activity groups.

Intermediate activities it contains

The intermediate work activities O*NET groups under Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings, ranked by how many occupations perform each. Each links to its own page.

Intermediate activity Occupations AI applied
Monitor operations to ensure adequate performance 100 46th pct
Monitor equipment operation 99 29th pct
Monitor health conditions of humans or animals 77 36th pct
Monitor operations to ensure compliance with regulations or standards 71 70th pct
Monitor individual behavior or performance 54 54th pct
Monitor safety or security of work areas, facilities, or properties 53 57th pct
Monitor external affairs, trends, or events 29 87th pct
Monitor financial data or activities 29 42nd pct
Monitor environmental conditions 25 48th pct
Monitor operation of computer or information technologies 15 62nd pct
Monitor traffic conditions 6 22nd pct

How AI is applied to this activity group

Microsoft's "Working with AI" study measured how often an AI assistant performs each work activity in real Bing Copilot conversations. Averaged across the 11 intermediate activities under Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings that the study measured, this group ranks in the 50th percentile for how frequently AI is applied — a description of how AI is used today, not a forecast that the activity will be automated.

The figure is the mean of the child activities' applied-percentiles; open any activity above to see its underlying Microsoft measurements. Every occupation blends many activities, so a high AI-applied rank for one group does not mean a job is being automated.

Occupations that rely on this activity group most

Ranked by O*NET importance rating (1–5) for Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings. Wages are BLS OEWS May 2024 national medians.

Occupation Importance Median pay Employment
Order Clerks 4.73 $44,660 83,420
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 4.71 $226,600 99,300
Nuclear Technicians 4.67 $104,240 5,990
Medical Equipment Preparers 4.62 $46,490 72,760
Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders 4.62 $58,070 10,920
Sailors and Marine Oilers 4.59 $49,610 31,360
Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators 4.58 $58,710 469,270
Natural Sciences Managers 4.58 $161,180 100,870
Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators 4.58 $43,900 10,000
Chemical Plant and System Operators 4.55 $73,540 17,840
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.54 $69,590 162,780
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand 4.54 $41,690 11,850
Spa Managers 4.54 $61,340 10,490
Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians 4.54 $79,830 9,060
Commercial Pilots 4.53 $122,670 51,830
Neurologists 4.53 — 7,700
Surgical Assistants 4.52 $60,290 22,860
Biofuels Processing Technicians 4.52 $61,710 15,950
Nuclear Power Reactor Operators 4.52 $122,610 5,720
Endoscopy Technicians 4.50 $46,050 103,650
Power Distributors and Dispatchers 4.50 $107,240 9,180
Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers 4.47 $60,020 12,600
Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists 4.47 — —
Nurse Anesthetists 4.46 $223,210 50,350
Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric 4.46 — 12,110
Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders 4.45 $57,090 127,410
Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists 4.45 $52,380 2,780
Food Batchmakers 4.44 $40,790 171,660
Electricians 4.43 $62,350 742,580
Sports Medicine Physicians 4.43 — 315,360
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors 4.43 — —
Sheet Metal Workers 4.42 $60,850 117,470
Wind Energy Operations Managers 4.41 $136,550 630,980
Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers 4.41 $44,980 14,900
Anesthesiologists 4.40 — 41,890
Construction Laborers 4.38 $46,730 1,057,660
Anesthesiologist Assistants 4.38 $133,260 155,540
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators 4.38 $58,260 126,750
First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers 4.38 $92,430 93,680
Bailiffs 4.38 $57,050 16,910
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers 4.37 $47,460 591,180
Non-Destructive Testing Specialists 4.36 $77,390 64,410
Biochemists and Biophysicists 4.35 $103,650 34,520
Roof Bolters, Mining 4.35 $76,640 2,230
Biofuels Production Managers 4.34 $121,440 234,380
Biomass Power Plant Managers 4.34 $121,440 234,380
Gas Plant Operators 4.34 $83,400 15,910
Motorcycle Mechanics 4.34 $47,200 14,010
Nuclear Monitoring Technicians 4.34 $104,240 5,990
Chemical Technicians 4.33 $57,790 55,640
Floor Sanders and Finishers 4.33 $49,150 4,140
Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas 4.32 $57,980 44,120
Materials Scientists 4.32 $104,160 8,330
Freight Forwarders 4.31 $49,900 97,800
First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers 4.30 $78,300 600,680
Occupational Health and Safety Specialists 4.30 $83,910 128,430
Nurse Midwives 4.30 $128,790 8,280
Prosthodontists 4.30 — 760
Neurodiagnostic Technologists 4.29 $48,790 174,060
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping 4.29 $45,650 49,720

Showing 60 of 894 occupations.

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. "Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/activity-groups/monitoring-processes-materials-or-surroundings

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/activity-groups/monitoring-processes-materials-or-surroundings

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-monitoring-processes-materials-or-surroundings,
  title  = {Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/activity-groups/monitoring-processes-materials-or-surroundings}
}

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