Will AI replace Network and Computer Systems Administrators?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
53/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 83% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 27% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 88% of the work
What the job involves
Install, configure, and maintain an organization's local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), data communications network, operating systems, and physical and virtual servers. Perform system monitoring and verify the integrity and availability of hardware, network, and server resources and systems. Review system and application logs and verify completion of scheduled jobs, including system backups. Analyze network and server resource consumption and control user access. Install and upgrade software and maintain software licenses. May assist in network modeling, analysis, planning, and coordination between network and data communications hardware and software.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(6)
- Plan, coordinate, and implement network security measures to protect data, software, and hardware.
- Diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software, or other network and system problems, and replace defective components when necessary.
- Design, configure, and test computer hardware, networking software and operating system software.
- Recommend changes to improve systems and network configurations, and determine hardware or software requirements related to such changes.
- Analyze equipment performance records to determine the need for repair or replacement.
and 1 more
Within reach(11)
- Perform data backups and disaster recovery operations.
- Maintain and administer computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, systems software, applications software, and all configurations.
- Configure, monitor, and maintain email applications or virus protection software.
- Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments are needed and where changes will be needed in the future.
- Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to coordinate computer network access and use.
and 6 more
Out of reach(3)
- Confer with network users about solutions to existing system problems.
- Maintain an inventory of parts for emergency repairs.
- Load computer tapes and disks, and install software and printer paper or forms.
Also called
Network Analyst · Network Manager · IT Systems Admin (Information Technology Systems Administrator) · IT Systems Admin · Server Administrator · Systems Administrator (Systems Admin) · Systems Admin · LAN Administrator (Local Area Network Administrator)
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