# Commercial and Industrial Designers

> Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use, marketing, and materials to create the most functional and appealing product design.

- **SOC code:** 27-1021.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-27-1021-00
- **Also known as:** Design Engineer, Designer, Industrial Designer, Product Designer, Mechanical Designer, Mold Designer, Product Design Engineer, Product Development Engineer
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
- Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
- Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
- Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
- Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.
- Develop industrial standards and regulatory guidelines.
- Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
- Coordinate the look and function of product lines.
- Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
- Develop manufacturing procedures and monitor the manufacture of their designs in a factory to improve operations and product quality.
- Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.
- Participate in new product planning or market research, including studying the potential need for new products.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Design _(knowledge)_
- Engineering and Technology _(knowledge)_
- Production and Processing _(knowledge)_
- Mechanical _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Computers and Electronics _(knowledge)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Fluency of Ideas _(ability)_
- Originality _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(transferable_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Adobe Creative Cloud software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Adobe Illustrator _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Adobe Photoshop _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Figma _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Adobe Acrobat _(hot technology)_
- Adobe After Effects _(hot technology)_
- Adobe InDesign _(hot technology)_
- Apache Maven _(hot technology)_

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 75th percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 69th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 83rd percentile (High) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 70th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 21st percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 3.2% growth (About average); 2.5k annual openings; 30.6k → 31.6k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $79,450; 30,250 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 30% automation, 44% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** directive.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Read publications, attend showings, and study competing products and design styles and motifs to obtain perspective and generate design concepts. _(1.1% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Advise corporations on issues involving corporate image projects or problems. _(0.6% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me read publications, attend showings, and study competing products and design styles and motifs to obtain perspective and generate design concepts.
- Help me advise corporations on issues involving corporate image projects or problems.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-27-1021-00_