Anthropologists and Archeologists
In short: today's best AI models could do about 8% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 34% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 63% of the time, stays with people.
Study the origin, development, and behavior of human beings. May study the way of life, language, or physical characteristics of people in various parts of the world. May engage in systematic recovery and examination of material evidence, such as tools or pottery remaining from past human cultures, in order to determine the history, customs, and living habits of earlier civilizations.
8,990 people do this job in the US. $70,770 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on3 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet12 h
- Stays with people25 h
Anthropologists and Archeologists, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 3 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 12 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 25 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents (under an hour); Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences (under an hour); Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 37%
- 35%
- 28%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 1%. Today's estimate: 8%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.053% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 220th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 30 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.3% to 0.28% (released February and March 2025); 0.13% to 0.13% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.068% to 0.053% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.3% | 68 of 708 | 13 of 30 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.28% | 65 of 703 | 14 of 30 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.13% | 132 of 655 | 9 of 30 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.096% | 160 of 672 | 10 of 30 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.13% | 135 of 677 | 11 of 30 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.068% | 193 of 434 | 2 of 30 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.053% | 220 of 447 | 2 of 30 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 38% of this job's working time as physical work. For 11% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 5% in a purpose-built cell, 5% in a structured facility. 0.16 of 3, the 472nd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 62%
- No robot shown 27%
- In a purpose-built cell 5%
- In a structured facility 5%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 30 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 20% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.5 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.5 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Develop and test theories concerning the origin and development of past cultures.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.5 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Develop intervention procedures, using techniques such as individual and focus group interviews, consultations, and participant observation of social interaction.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 2.5 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 5% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 31%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 4% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1 work week | 27%Half by Apr 2027 | |
| Enhance the cultural sensitivity of elementary and secondary curricula and classroom interactions in collaboration with educators and teachers.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 4% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1.3 work weeks | 24%Half by May 2027 | |
| Write grant proposals to obtain funding for research.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 4% | 1.3 work weeks1.7 work days to 4.2 work weeks | 3%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Formulate general rules that describe and predict the development and behavior of cultures and social institutions.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.5 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Teach or mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology or archeology.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.7 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Study archival collections of primary historical sources to help explain the origins and development of cultural patterns.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.7 work weeks | 15%Half by Oct 2027 |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Anthropologists and Archeologists is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 8% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 34% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (23% to 37% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Anthropologists and Archeologists come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents (99% of the task's time now); Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences (31% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials (27% of the task's time now, 99% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Anthropologists and Archeologists stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations; Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning; and Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments. Together such tasks are about 63% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Anthropologists and Archeologists?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.053% went to this job's tasks, the 220th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 30 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 14%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Anthropologists and Archeologists?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 38% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 11% of the working time, 5% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.16 of 3. One example: Spot (Boston Dynamics) + autonomous laser-scanning drone, Smart@POMPEI project for "assess archeological sites for resource management, development, or conservation purposes and recommend methods for site protection". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 30 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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