Job Check
Transportation Engineers
Develop plans for surface transportation projects, according to established engineering standards and state or federal construction policy. Prepare designs, specifications, or estimates for transportation facilities. Plan modifications of existing streets, highways, or freeways to improve traffic flow.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Design or prepare plans for new transportation systems or parts of systems, such as airports, commuter trains, highways, streets, bridges, drainage structures, or roadway lighting.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Check construction plans, design calculations, or cost estimations to ensure completeness, accuracy, or conformity to engineering standards or practices.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Prepare administrative, technical, or statistical reports on traffic-operation matters, such as accidents, safety measures, or pedestrian volume or practices.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Plan alteration or modification of existing transportation structures to improve safety or function.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Confer with contractors, utility companies, or government agencies to discuss plans, specifications, or work schedules.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Present data, maps, or other information at construction-related public hearings or meetings.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Prepare final project layout drawings that include details such as stress calculations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Investigate traffic problems and recommend methods to improve traffic flow or safety.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Estimate transportation project costs.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Design or engineer drainage, erosion, or sedimentation control systems for transportation projects.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
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 loss1%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
50%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 69% 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
Your human edge
AI touches every main task of this job in some way. Your edge is judgment: knowing when AI’s work is right, and checking it before it counts.