Will AI replace Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
10/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 20% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 20% of the work
What the job involves
Operate a variety of drills such as rotary, churn, and pneumatic to tap subsurface water and salt deposits, to remove core samples during mineral exploration or soil testing, and to facilitate the use of explosives in mining or construction. Includes horizontal and earth boring machine operators.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(7)
- Record drilling progress and geological data.
- Document geological formations encountered during work.
- Monitor drilling operations, by checking gauges and listening to equipment to assess drilling conditions and to determine the need to adjust drilling or alter equipment.
- Create and lay out designs for drill and blast patterns.
- Review client requirements and proposed locations for drilling operations to determine feasibility, and to determine cost estimates.
and 2 more
Out of reach(22)
- Operate controls to stabilize machines and to position and align drills.
- Start, stop, and control drilling speed of machines and insertion of casings into holes.
- Select and attach drill bits and drill rods, adding more rods as hole depths increase, and changing drill bits as needed.
- Perform routine maintenance and upgrade work on machines and equipment, such as replacing parts, building up drill bits, and lubricating machinery.
- Operate machines to flush earth cuttings or to blow dust from holes.
and 17 more
Also called
Blast Hole Driller · Hard Rock Drill Operator · Rock Drill Operator · Churn Drill Operator · Churn Driller · Earth Auger Operator · Earth Boring Machine Operator · Diamond Driller
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