Will AI replace Civil Engineers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
36/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 57% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 58% of the work
What the job involves
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(10)
- Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations.
- Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility.
- Analyze survey reports, maps, drawings, blueprints, aerial photography, or other topographical or geologic data.
- Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools.
- Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions.
and 5 more
Out of reach(6)
- Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.
- Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, program modifications, or structural repairs.
- Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
- Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications.
- Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.
and 1 more
Also called
Geotechnical Engineer · Structural Engineer · City Engineer · Civil Engineer · County Engineer · Design Engineer · Construction Engineer · Hydraulic Engineer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics