Job Check
Detectives and Criminal Investigators
Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Prepare reports that detail investigation findings.People already use AI for this at work
- 02Obtain and verify evidence by interviewing and observing suspects and witnesses or by analyzing records.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Preserve, process, and analyze items of evidence obtained from crime scenes and suspects, placing them in proper containers and destroying evidence no longer needed.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Obtain facts or statements from complainants, witnesses, and accused persons and record interviews, using recording device.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Record progress of investigation, maintain informational files on suspects, and submit reports to commanding officer or magistrate to authorize warrants.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Analyze completed police reports to determine what additional information and investigative work is needed.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Note, mark, and photograph location of objects found, such as footprints, tire tracks, bullets and bloodstains, and take measurements of the scene.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Secure deceased body and obtain evidence from it, preventing bystanders from tampering with it prior to medical examiner's arrival.Mostly human for now
- 09Determine scope, timing, and direction of investigations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Search for and collect evidence, such as fingerprints, using investigative equipment.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 loss4%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
32%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 48% 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 48% 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.
- Secure deceased body and obtain evidence from it, preventing bystanders from tampering with it prior to medical examiner's arrival.
- Search for and collect evidence, such as fingerprints, using investigative equipment.