Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work.

“Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work.” is a core task performed by Cost Estimators. Among the occupation's 14 rated tasks, workers place it 7th by importance (#8 most important). About 95% 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.

• Determine values or prices of goods or services. in Making Decisions and Solving Problems

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: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Analyze blueprints and other documentation to prepare time, cost, materials, and labor estimates. · importance 4.3
• Confer with engineers, architects, owners, contractors, and subcontractors on changes and adjustments to cost estimates. · importance 4.2
• Collect historical cost data to estimate costs for current or future products. · importance 4.2
• Assess cost effectiveness of products, projects or services, tracking actual costs relative to bids as the project develops. · importance 4.1
• Consult with clients, vendors, personnel in other departments, or construction foremen to discuss and formulate estimates and resolve issues. · importance 4.0
• Prepare estimates for use in selecting vendors or subcontractors. · importance 4.0
• Establish and maintain tendering process, and conduct negotiations. · importance 4.0
• Set up cost monitoring and reporting systems and procedures. · importance 4.0
• Review material and labor requirements to decide whether it is more cost-effective to produce or purchase components. · importance 3.8
• Prepare cost and expenditure statements and other necessary documentation at regular intervals for the duration of the project. · importance 3.7
• Conduct special studies to develop and establish standard hour and related cost data or to reduce cost. · importance 3.5
• Visit site and record information about access, drainage and topography, and availability of utility services. · importance 3.3
• Prepare and maintain a directory of suppliers, contractors and subcontractors. · importance 3.2

See all tasks on the Cost Estimators 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-84,
  title  = {Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work.},
  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-84}
}