Job Check
Ship Engineers
Supervise and coordinate activities of crew engaged in operating and maintaining engines, boilers, deck machinery, and electrical, sanitary, and refrigeration equipment aboard ship.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Monitor engine, machinery, or equipment indicators when vessels are underway, and report abnormalities to appropriate shipboard staff.Mostly human for now
- 02Monitor the availability, use, or condition of lifesaving equipment or pollution preventatives to ensure that international regulations are followed.Mostly human for now
- 03Monitor and test operations of engines or other equipment so that malfunctions and their causes can be identified.Mostly human for now
- 04Start engines to propel ships, and regulate engines and power transmissions to control speeds of ships, according to directions from captains or bridge computers.Mostly human for now
- 05Perform or participate in emergency drills, as required.Mostly human for now
- 06Perform general marine vessel maintenance or repair work, such as repairing leaks, finishing interiors, refueling, or maintaining decks.Mostly human for now
- 07Maintain or repair engines, electric motors, pumps, winches, or other mechanical or electrical equipment, or assist other crew members with maintenance or repair duties.Mostly human for now
- 08Maintain complete records of engineering department activities, including machine operations.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Operate or maintain off-loading liquid pumps or valves.Mostly human for now
- 10Maintain electrical power, heating, ventilation, refrigeration, water, or sewerage systems.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
17%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 4% 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 59% 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.
- Monitor engine, machinery, or equipment indicators when vessels are underway, and report abnormalities to appropriate shipboard staff.
- Monitor the availability, use, or condition of lifesaving equipment or pollution preventatives to ensure that international regulations are followed.
- Monitor and test operations of engines or other equipment so that malfunctions and their causes can be identified.