Conduct research, or assist in the conduct of research, including the collection of information and samples, such as blood, water, soil, plants and animals.

“Conduct research, or assist in the conduct of research, including the collection of information and samples, such as blood, water, soil, plants and animals.” is a core task performed by Biological Technicians. Among the occupation's 18 rated tasks, workers place it 18th by importance (#1 most important). About 93% 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.

• Collect environmental or biological samples. in Handling and Moving Objects

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: 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.

• 23% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: directive
• Average autonomy of the AI: 2.8 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 97% 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

• Use computers, computer-interfaced equipment, robotics or high-technology industrial applications to perform work duties. · importance 4.3
• Participate in the research, development, or manufacturing of medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations. · importance 4.3
• Monitor and observe experiments, recording production and test data for evaluation by research personnel. · importance 4.3
• Analyze experimental data and interpret results to write reports and summaries of findings. · importance 4.2
• Provide technical support and services for scientists and engineers working in fields such as agriculture, environmental science, resource management, biology, and health sciences. · importance 4.2
• Keep detailed logs of all work-related activities. · importance 4.1
• Input data into databases. · importance 4.0
• Isolate, identify and prepare specimens for examination. · importance 3.9
• Set up, adjust, calibrate, clean, maintain, and troubleshoot laboratory and field equipment. · importance 3.9
• Clean, maintain and prepare supplies and work areas. · importance 3.9
• Feed livestock or laboratory animals. · importance 3.8
• Conduct standardized biological, microbiological or biochemical tests and laboratory analyses to evaluate the quantity or quality of physical or chemical substances in food or other products. · importance 3.7
• Examine animals and specimens to detect the presence of disease or other problems. · importance 3.7
• Monitor laboratory work to ensure compliance with set standards. · importance 3.5

See all tasks on the Biological Technicians 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-3741,
  title  = {Conduct research, or assist in the conduct of research, including the collection of information and samples, such as blood, water, soil, plants and animals.},
  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-3741}
}