Will AI replace Ship Engineers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
14/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 27% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 29% of the work
What the job involves
Supervise and coordinate activities of crew engaged in operating and maintaining engines, boilers, deck machinery, and electrical, sanitary, and refrigeration equipment aboard ship.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(5)
- Monitor engine, machinery, or equipment indicators when vessels are underway, and report abnormalities to appropriate shipboard staff.
- Maintain complete records of engineering department activities, including machine operations.
- Order and receive engine room stores, such as oil or spare parts, maintain inventories, and record usage of supplies.
- Record orders for changes in ship speed or direction, and note gauge readings or test data, such as revolutions per minute or voltage output, in engineering logs or bellbooks.
- Act as a liaison between a ship's captain and shore personnel to ensure that schedules and budgets are maintained and that the ship is operated safely and efficiently.
Out of reach(12)
- Monitor and test operations of engines or other equipment so that malfunctions and their causes can be identified.
- Monitor the availability, use, or condition of lifesaving equipment or pollution preventatives to ensure that international regulations are followed.
- Perform or participate in emergency drills, as required.
- Perform general marine vessel maintenance or repair work, such as repairing leaks, finishing interiors, refueling, or maintaining decks.
- Start engines to propel ships, and regulate engines and power transmissions to control speeds of ships, according to directions from captains or bridge computers.
and 7 more
Also called
Tugboat Engineer · Barge Engineer · Engineer · Ferry Engineer · Towboat Engineer · Tug Boat Engineer · Vessel Engineer · Deck 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