Job Check
Commercial Pilots
Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes charter pilots with similar certification, and air ambulance and air tour pilots. Excludes regional, national, and international airline pilots.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Check aircraft prior to flights to ensure that the engines, controls, instruments, and other systems are functioning properly.Mostly human for now
- 02Co-pilot aircraft or perform captain's duties, as required.Mostly human for now
- 03Consider airport altitudes, outside temperatures, plane weights, and wind speeds and directions to calculate the speed needed to become airborne.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Use instrumentation to pilot aircraft when visibility is poor.Mostly human for now
- 05Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.Mostly human for now
- 06Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.Mostly human for now
- 07Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.Mostly human for now
- 08Plan flights according to government and company regulations, using aeronautical charts and navigation instruments.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight according to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.Mostly human for now
- 10Check baggage or cargo to ensure that it has been loaded correctly.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
24%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 53% 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 68% 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.
- Check aircraft prior to flights to ensure that the engines, controls, instruments, and other systems are functioning properly.
- Co-pilot aircraft or perform captain's duties, as required.
- Use instrumentation to pilot aircraft when visibility is poor.