Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.

“Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.” is a supplemental task performed by Civil Engineers. Among the occupation's 17 rated tasks, workers place it 16th by importance (#2 most important). About 67% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Test characteristics of materials or products. in Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.004% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• Most common interaction: task iteration
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.3 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 90% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations. · importance 4.3
• Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards. · importance 4.0
• Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site. · importance 4.0
• Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications. · importance 3.9
• Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools. · importance 3.9
• Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, program modifications, or structural repairs. · importance 3.7
• Analyze survey reports, maps, drawings, blueprints, aerial photography, or other topographical or geologic data. · importance 3.7
• Direct or participate in surveying to lay out installations or establish reference points, grades, or elevations to guide construction. · importance 3.7
• Identify environmental risks and develop risk management strategies for civil engineering projects. · importance 3.6
• Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility. · importance 3.5
• Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions. · importance 3.5
• Conduct studies of traffic patterns or environmental conditions to identify engineering problems and assess potential project impact. · importance 3.1
• Design energy-efficient or environmentally sound civil structures. · importance 3.0
• Develop or implement engineering solutions to clean up industrial accidents or other contaminated sites. · importance 2.9

See all tasks on the Civil Engineers page.

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-task-153,
  title  = {Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.},
  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/tasks/task-153}
}