Visit suppliers of materials or users of products to gather specific information.

“Visit suppliers of materials or users of products to gather specific information.” is a core task performed by Materials Scientists. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 2nd by importance (#15 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.

• Collect information about patients or clients. in Getting Information

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.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Conduct research on the structures and properties of materials, such as metals, alloys, polymers, and ceramics, to obtain information that could be used to develop new products or enhance existing ones. · importance 4.4
• Test metals to determine conformance to specifications of mechanical strength, strength-weight ratio, ductility, magnetic and electrical properties, and resistance to abrasion, corrosion, heat, and cold. · importance 4.3
• Test material samples for tolerance under tension, compression, and shear to determine the cause of metal failures. · importance 4.2
• Determine ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials with new or specific properties for use in a variety of products and applications. · importance 4.2
• Prepare reports, manuscripts, proposals, and technical manuals for use by other scientists and requestors, such as sponsors and customers. · importance 4.1
• Plan laboratory experiments to confirm feasibility of processes and techniques used in the production of materials with special characteristics. · importance 4.1
• Supervise and monitor production processes to ensure efficient use of equipment, timely changes to specifications, and project completion within time frame and budget. · importance 4.0
• Recommend materials for reliable performance in various environments. · importance 4.0
• Perform experiments and computer modeling to study the nature, structure, and physical and chemical properties of metals and their alloys, and their responses to applied forces. · importance 3.8
• Research methods of processing, forming, and firing materials to develop such products as ceramic dental fillings, unbreakable dinner plates, and telescope lenses. · importance 3.8
• Devise testing methods to evaluate the effects of various conditions on particular materials. · importance 3.8
• Test individual parts and products to ensure that manufacturer and governmental quality and safety standards are met. · importance 3.8
• Confer with customers to determine how to tailor materials to their needs. · importance 3.7
• Teach in colleges and universities. · importance 3.6

See all tasks on the Materials Scientists 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-9093,
  title  = {Visit suppliers of materials or users of products to gather specific information.},
  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-9093}
}