Develop economic models, forecasts, or scenarios to predict future economic and environmental outcomes.

“Develop economic models, forecasts, or scenarios to predict future economic and environmental outcomes.” is a core task performed by Environmental Economists. Among the occupation's 20 rated tasks, workers place it 14th by importance (#7 most important). About 100% 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.

• Develop scientific or mathematical theories or models. in Thinking Creatively

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: T2.

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.

• 0.008% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 95% 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.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Write technical documents or academic articles to communicate study results or economic forecasts. · importance 4.5
• Conduct research on economic and environmental topics, such as alternative fuel use, public and private land use, soil conservation, air and water pollution control, and endangered species protection. · importance 4.4
• Collect and analyze data to compare the environmental implications of economic policy or practice alternatives. · importance 4.2
• Assess the costs and benefits of various activities, policies, or regulations that affect the environment or natural resource stocks. · importance 3.9
• Prepare and deliver presentations to communicate economic and environmental study results, to present policy recommendations, or to raise awareness of environmental consequences. · importance 3.9
• Develop programs or policy recommendations to achieve environmental goals in cost-effective ways. · importance 3.9
• Demonstrate or promote the economic benefits of sound environmental regulations. · importance 3.8
• Conduct research to study the relationships among environmental problems and patterns of economic production and consumption. · importance 3.7
• Perform complex, dynamic, and integrated mathematical modeling of ecological, environmental, or economic systems. · importance 3.7
• Write social, legal, or economic impact statements to inform decision makers for natural resource policies, standards, or programs. · importance 3.5
• Teach courses in environmental economics. · importance 3.5
• Develop programs or policy recommendations to promote sustainability and sustainable development. · importance 3.4
• Develop systems for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting environmental and economic data. · importance 3.4
• Write research proposals and grant applications to obtain private or public funding for environmental and economic studies. · importance 3.3

See all tasks on the Environmental Economists 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-16909,
  title  = {Develop economic models, forecasts, or scenarios to predict future economic and environmental outcomes.},
  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-16909}
}