Design structures or facilities.

Design structures or facilities. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 8 occupations and seen in 9 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Design structures or facilities. in Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 9 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 9 (100%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 2 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.004% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Integrate engineering elements into unified architectural designs. · Architects, Except Landscape and Naval · importance 4.3 · exposure with tools
• Plan layouts of structural architectural projects. · Architects, Except Landscape and Naval · importance 4.3 · exposure with tools
• Design, implement, maintain, or improve electrical instruments, equipment, facilities, components, products, or systems for commercial, industrial, or domestic purposes. · Electrical Engineers · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Design complete hull and superstructure according to specifications and test data, in conformity with standards of safety, efficiency, and economy. · Marine Engineers and Naval Architects · importance 4.0 · exposure with tools
• Design, implement, and monitor the development of mines, facilities, systems, or equipment. · Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Design structures for crop storage, animal shelter and loading, and animal and crop processing, and supervise their construction. · Agricultural Engineers · importance 3.6 · exposure with tools
• Design water storage tanks or other water storage facilities. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.5 · exposure with tools
• Assist drafters in developing the structural design of products, using drafting tools or computer-assisted drafting equipment or software. · Mechanical Engineers · importance 3.5 · exposure with tools
• Design plant layouts or production facilities. · Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians · exposure with tools

Occupations that perform this

• Architects, Except Landscape and Naval
• Electrical Engineers
• Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
• Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers
• Agricultural Engineers
• Water/Wastewater Engineers
• Mechanical Engineers
• Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians

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.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-design-structures-or-facilities,
  title  = {Design structures or facilities.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/design-structures-or-facilities}
}