Job Check
Air Traffic Controllers
Control air traffic on and within vicinity of airport, and movement of air traffic between altitude sectors and control centers, according to established procedures and policies. Authorize, regulate, and control commercial airline flights according to government or company regulations to expedite and ensure flight safety.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Inform pilots about nearby planes or potentially hazardous conditions, such as weather, speed and direction of wind, or visibility problems.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Monitor aircraft within a specific airspace, using radar, computer equipment, or visual references.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Monitor, direct, or sequence the movement of aircraft within an assigned air space or on the ground at airports to minimize delays and maximize safety.No rating yet
- 04Alert airport emergency services in cases of emergency or when aircraft are experiencing difficulties.Mostly human for now
- 05Maintain radio or telephone contact with adjacent control towers, terminal control units, or other area control centers to coordinate aircraft movement.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Transfer control of departing flights to traffic control centers and accept control of arriving flights.Mostly human for now
- 07Provide flight path changes or directions to emergency landing fields for pilots traveling in bad weather or in emergency situations.Mostly human for now
- 08Direct pilots to runways when space is available or direct them to maintain a traffic pattern until there is space for them to land.Mostly human for now
- 09Contact pilots by radio to provide meteorological, navigational, or other information.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Determine the timing or procedures for flight vector changes.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
34%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 59% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Alert airport emergency services in cases of emergency or when aircraft are experiencing difficulties.
- Transfer control of departing flights to traffic control centers and accept control of arriving flights.
- Provide flight path changes or directions to emergency landing fields for pilots traveling in bad weather or in emergency situations.