Research advanced engineering designs or applications.

Research advanced engineering designs or applications. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 6 occupations and seen in 10 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Research technology designs or applications. in Getting Information .

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 10 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 10 (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 4 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.

• Conduct research studies to develop new concepts in the field of automotive engineering. · Automotive Engineers · importance 3.8 · exposure with tools
• Conduct research on robotic technology to create new robotic systems or system capabilities. · Robotics Engineers · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Conduct feasibility studies for the construction of facilities, such as water supply systems, runoff collection networks, water and wastewater treatment plants, or wastewater collection systems. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Conduct research on new photonics technologies. · Photonics Engineers · importance 3.6 · exposure with tools
• Conduct research into the feasibility, design, operation, or performance of robotic mechanisms, components, or systems, such as planetary rovers, multiple mobile robots, reconfigurable robots, or man-machine interactions. · Robotics Engineers · importance 3.6 · direct LLM exposure
• Conduct analytical, environmental, operational, or performance studies to develop designs for products, such as marine engines, equipment, and structures. · Marine Engineers and Naval Architects · importance 3.5 · exposure with tools
• Gather and analyze water use data to forecast water demand. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.4 · exposure with tools
• Participate in research or testing of computerized automotive applications, such as telemetrics, intelligent transportation systems, artificial intelligence, or automatic control. · Automotive Engineering Technicians · importance 3.4 · exposure with tools
• Research computerized automotive applications, such as telemetrics, intelligent transportation systems, artificial intelligence, or automatic control. · Automotive Engineers · importance 3.3 · direct LLM exposure
• Conduct engineering research experiments to improve or modify mining and oil machinery and operations. · Petroleum Engineers · importance 3.1 · exposure with tools

Occupations that perform this

• Automotive Engineers
• Robotics Engineers
• Water/Wastewater Engineers
• Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
• Automotive Engineering Technicians
• Petroleum Engineers

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-research-advanced-engineering-designs-or-applications,
  title  = {Research advanced engineering designs or applications.},
  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/research-advanced-engineering-designs-or-applications}
}