Will AI replace Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
0/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 2% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 0% of the work
What the job involves
Operate or tend machinery at surface mining site, equipped with scoops, shovels, or buckets to excavate and load loose materials.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Out of reach(16)
- Move levers, depress foot pedals, and turn dials to operate power machinery, such as power shovels, stripping shovels, scraper loaders, or backhoes.
- Set up or inspect equipment prior to operation.
- Become familiar with digging plans, machine capabilities and limitations, and efficient and safe digging procedures in a given application.
- Observe hand signals, grade stakes, or other markings when operating machines so that work can be performed to specifications.
- Receive written or oral instructions regarding material movement or excavation.
and 11 more
Also called
Earth Moving Equipment Operator · Backhoe Operator · Dragline Oiler · Dragline Operator · Excavator Operator · Heavy Equipment Operator · Aerial Tram Operator · Air Shovel Operator
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