Job Check
Computer Hardware Engineers
Research, design, develop, or test computer or computer-related equipment for commercial, industrial, military, or scientific use. May supervise the manufacturing and installation of computer or computer-related equipment and components.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Update knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.AI could speed this up a lot
- 02Design and develop computer hardware and support peripherals, including central processing units (CPUs), support logic, microprocessors, custom integrated circuits, and printers and disk drives.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Confer with engineering staff and consult specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Build, test, and modify product prototypes, using working models or theoretical models constructed with computer simulation.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Write detailed functional specifications that document the hardware development process and support hardware introduction.People already use AI for this at work
- 06Test and verify hardware and support peripherals to ensure that they meet specifications and requirements, by recording and analyzing test data.AI could speed this up a lot
- 07Direct technicians, engineering designers or other technical support personnel as needed.Mostly human for now
- 08Provide technical support to designers, marketing and sales departments, suppliers, engineers and other team members throughout the product development and implementation process.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Select hardware and material, assuring compliance with specifications and product requirements.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.People already use AI for this at work
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
73%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 91% 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 57% 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 technicians, engineering designers or other technical support personnel as needed.