Job Check
Anthropologists and Archeologists
Study the origin, development, and behavior of human beings. May study the way of life, language, or physical characteristics of people in various parts of the world. May engage in systematic recovery and examination of material evidence, such as tools or pottery remaining from past human cultures, in order to determine the history, customs, and living habits of earlier civilizations.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Teach or mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology or archeology.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.People already use AI for this at work
- 04Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Create data records for use in describing and analyzing social patterns and processes, using photography, videography, and audio recordings.People already use AI for this at work
- 06Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Apply traditional ecological knowledge and assessments of culturally distinctive land and resource management institutions to assist in the resolution of conflicts over habitat protection and resource enhancement.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Lead field training sites and train field staff, students, and volunteers in excavation methods.Mostly human for now
- 10Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.Mostly human for now
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 loss14%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
44%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 66% 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
Above 49% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
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.
- Lead field training sites and train field staff, students, and volunteers in excavation methods.
- Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.