Investigate theoretical or conceptual issues, such as the human design considerations of lunar landers or habitats.

“Investigate theoretical or conceptual issues, such as the human design considerations of lunar landers or habitats.” is a supplemental task performed by Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists. Among the occupation's 26 rated tasks, workers place it 4th by importance (#23 most important). About 80% 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.

• Research technology designs or applications. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

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 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

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.

• 0.051% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 12% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: learning
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.6 (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

• Collect data through direct observation of work activities or witnessing the conduct of tests. · importance 4.7
• Conduct interviews or surveys of users or customers to collect information on topics, such as requirements, needs, fatigue, ergonomics, or interfaces. · importance 4.5
• Advocate for end users in collaboration with other professionals, including engineers, designers, managers, or customers. · importance 4.5
• Inspect work sites to identify physical hazards. · importance 4.5
• Prepare reports or presentations summarizing results or conclusions of human factors engineering or ergonomics activities, such as testing, investigation, or validation. · importance 4.4
• Recommend workplace changes to improve health and safety, using knowledge of potentially harmful factors, such as heavy loads or repetitive motions. · importance 4.4
• Perform functional, task, or anthropometric analysis, using tools, such as checklists, surveys, videotaping, or force measurement. · importance 4.3
• Provide technical support to clients through activities, such as rearranging workplace fixtures to reduce physical hazards or discomfort or modifying task sequences to reduce cycle time. · importance 4.3
• Assess the user-interface or usability characteristics of products. · importance 4.3
• Establish system operating or training requirements to ensure optimized human-machine interfaces. · importance 4.2
• Integrate human factors requirements into operational hardware. · importance 4.2
• Review health, safety, accident, or worker compensation records to evaluate safety program effectiveness or to identify jobs with high incidence of injury. · importance 4.2
• Design or evaluate human work systems, using human factors engineering and ergonomic principles to optimize usability, cost, quality, safety, or performance. · importance 4.2
• Write, review, or comment on documents, such as proposals, test plans, or procedures. · importance 4.2

See all tasks on the Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists 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-16376,
  title  = {Investigate theoretical or conceptual issues, such as the human design considerations of lunar landers or habitats.},
  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-16376}
}