Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.

“Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.” is a core task performed by Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary. Among the occupation's 29 rated tasks, workers place it 10th by importance (#20 most important). About 91% 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.

• Select materials or equipment for operations or projects. in Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Purchase goods or services. in Monitoring and Controlling Resources

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.

• 100% 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

• Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory and clinic work, assignments, and papers. · importance 4.7
• Supervise students' laboratory and clinical work. · importance 4.7
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions. · importance 4.6
• Assess clinical education needs and patient and client teaching needs using a variety of methods. · importance 4.5
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others. · importance 4.5
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as pharmacology, mental health nursing, and community health care practices. · importance 4.5
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts. · importance 4.4
• Demonstrate patient care in clinical units of hospitals. · importance 4.4
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences. · importance 4.4
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction. · importance 4.4
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records. · importance 4.3
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. · importance 4.3
• Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues. · importance 4.3
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students. · importance 4.2

See all tasks on the Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 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-6141,
  title  = {Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.},
  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-6141}
}