Job Check
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
Command or supervise operations of ships and water vessels, such as tugboats and ferryboats. Required to hold license issued by U.S. Coast Guard.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Direct courses and speeds of ships, based on specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, water depths, tides, currents, and hazards.Mostly human for now
- 02Prevent ships under navigational control from engaging in unsafe operations.Mostly human for now
- 03Serve as a vessel's docking master upon arrival at a port or at a berth.Mostly human for now
- 04Consult maps, charts, weather reports, or navigation equipment to determine and direct ship movements.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Steer and operate vessels, using radios, depth finders, radars, lights, buoys, or lighthouses.Mostly human for now
- 06Operate ship-to-shore radios to exchange information needed for ship operations.AI could speed this up a lot
- 07Dock or undock vessels, sometimes maneuvering through narrow spaces, such as locks.Mostly human for now
- 08Stand watches on vessels during specified periods while vessels are under way.Mostly human for now
- 09Inspect vessels to ensure efficient and safe operation of vessels and equipment and conformance to regulations.Mostly human for now
- 10Read gauges to verify sufficient levels of hydraulic fluid, air pressure, or oxygen.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 lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
26%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 43% 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 79% 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.
- Direct courses and speeds of ships, based on specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, water depths, tides, currents, and hazards.
- Prevent ships under navigational control from engaging in unsafe operations.
- Serve as a vessel's docking master upon arrival at a port or at a berth.