Plan biological research.

Plan biological research. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 4 occupations and seen in 6 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Develop research plans or methodologies. in Thinking Creatively .

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 6 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 5 (83%) 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.

• Design molecular or cellular laboratory experiments, oversee their execution, and interpret results. · Molecular and Cellular Biologists · importance 4.5 · exposure with tools
• Plan and direct studies to investigate human or animal disease, preventive methods, and treatments for disease. · Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists · importance 4.5 · exposure with tools
• Plan or conduct basic genomic and biological research related to areas such as regulation of gene expression, protein interactions, metabolic networks, and nucleic acid or protein complexes. · Geneticists · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Plan and direct studies to investigate human or animal disease, preventive methods, and treatments for disease. · Epidemiologists · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Organize and conduct experimental studies with live animals in controlled or natural surroundings. · Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists · importance 3.7 · no direct exposure
• Plan and administer biological research programs for government, research firms, medical industries, or manufacturing firms. · Biologists · importance 3.0 · exposure with tools

Occupations that perform this

• Molecular and Cellular Biologists
• Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
• Epidemiologists
• Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists

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-plan-biological-research,
  title  = {Plan biological research.},
  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/plan-biological-research}
}