Dredge Operators
In short: today's best AI models could do about 0% 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 the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 100% of the time, stays with people.
Operate dredge to remove sand, gravel, or other materials in order to excavate and maintain navigable channels in waterways.
1,040 people do this job in the US. $49,640 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people40 h
Dredge Operators, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 40 hours stay with people.
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.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
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, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
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
None of this job's 6 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
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 94% of this job's working time as physical work. For 84% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 84% in a structured facility. 1.69 of 3, the 10th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 6%
- No robot shown 10%
- In a structured facility 84%
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 . 6 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct or assist workers placing shore anchors and cables, laying additional pipes from dredges to shore, and pumping water from pontoons.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 28% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Move levers to position dredges for excavation, to engage hydraulic pumps, to raise and lower suction booms, and to control rotation of cutterheads.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Royal IHC Dredging Control System / Automatic Cutter Controller (ACC) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 27% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Start power winches that draw in or let out cables to change positions of dredges, or pull in and let out cables manually.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Royal IHC Dredging Control System / Automatic Cutter Controller (ACC) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 23% | 17 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Pump water to clear machinery pipelines.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Lower anchor poles to verify depths of excavations, using winches, or scan depth gauges to determine depths of excavations.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Royal IHC Automatic Cutter Controller (ACC) / Dredge Profile Monitor (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Start and stop engines to operate equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Kongsberg K-Chief Power Management System (PMS) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | Stays with people |
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.
- Hoist and Winch Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators3% now, 3% by 2028
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining10% now, 10% by 2028
- Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas5% now, 5% by 2028
- Helpers--Extraction Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
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 Dredge Operators is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 0% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 0% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. 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 Dredge Operators come within reach first?
- No task has a meaningful share of its time within reach now or by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five: the work is mostly people work and body work, which the site does not count.
- Which tasks of Dredge Operators stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Direct or assist workers placing shore anchors and cables, laying additional pipes from dredges to shore, and pumping water from pontoons; Move levers to position dredges for excavation, to engage hydraulic pumps, to raise and lower suction booms, and to control rotation of cutterheads; and Start power winches that draw in or let out cables to change positions of dredges, or pull in and let out cables manually. Together such tasks are about 100% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Dredge Operators?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. 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 Dredge Operators?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 94% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 84% of the working time, 84% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.69 of 3. One example: Royal IHC Dredging Control System / Automatic Cutter Controller (ACC) for "move levers to position dredges for excavation, to engage hydraulic pumps, to raise and lower suction booms, and to control rotation of cutterheads". 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 6 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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