Apply mathematical theories and techniques to the solution of practical problems in business, engineering, the sciences, or other fields.

“Apply mathematical theories and techniques to the solution of practical problems in business, engineering, the sciences, or other fields.” is a core task performed by Mathematicians. Among the occupation's 11 rated tasks, workers place it 4th by importance (#8 most important). About 90% 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.

• Analyze scientific or applied data using mathematical principles. in Analyzing Data or Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task 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 1.00. Automation potential label: T2.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Maintain knowledge in the field by reading professional journals, talking with other mathematicians, and attending professional conferences. · importance 4.3
• Develop new principles and new relationships between existing mathematical principles to advance mathematical science. · importance 4.1
• Disseminate research by writing reports, publishing papers, or presenting at professional conferences. · importance 4.1
• Assemble sets of assumptions, and explore the consequences of each set. · importance 4.0
• Perform computations and apply methods of numerical analysis to data. · importance 3.9
• Address the relationships of quantities, magnitudes, and forms through the use of numbers and symbols. · importance 3.9
• Conduct research to extend mathematical knowledge in traditional areas, such as algebra, geometry, probability, and logic. · importance 3.8
• Develop mathematical or statistical models of phenomena to be used for analysis or for computational simulation. · importance 3.7
• Develop computational methods for solving problems that occur in areas of science and engineering or that come from applications in business or industry. · importance 3.2
• Design, analyze, and decipher encryption systems designed to transmit military, political, financial, or law-enforcement-related information in code. · importance 2.8

See all tasks on the Mathematicians 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
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-7367,
  title  = {Apply mathematical theories and techniques to the solution of practical problems in business, engineering, the sciences, or other fields.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-7367}
}