Will AI replace Robotics Engineers?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
47/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 73% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 16% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 73% of the work
What the job involves
Research, design, develop, or test robotic applications.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(4)
- Provide technical support for robotic systems.
- Debug robotics programs.
- Design software to control robotic systems for applications, such as military defense or manufacturing.
- Document robotic application development, maintenance, or changes.
Within reach(14)
- Review or approve designs, calculations, or cost estimates.
- Process or interpret signals or sensor data.
- Conduct research on robotic technology to create new robotic systems or system capabilities.
- Create back-ups of robot programs or parameters.
- Integrate robotics with peripherals, such as welders, controllers, or other equipment.
and 9 more
Out of reach(6)
- Build, configure, or test robots or robotic applications.
- Investigate mechanical failures or unexpected maintenance problems.
- Supervise technologists, technicians, or other engineers.
- Install, calibrate, operate, or maintain robots.
- Design end-of-arm tooling.
and 1 more
Also called
Robotics Engineer · Automation Engineer · Autonomous Vehicle Design Engineer · Design Engineer · Factory Automations Engineer · Research Engineer · Robotic Systems Engineer · Algorithm 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