Meter Readers, Utilities
In short: today's best AI models could do about 3% 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 97% of the time, stays with people.
Read meter and record consumption of electricity, gas, water, or steam.
19,430 people do this job in the US. $48,150 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people39 h
Meter Readers, Utilities, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 39 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Report to service departments any problems, such as meter irregularities, damaged equipment, or impediments to meter access, including dogs (under an hour); Answer customers' questions about services and charges, or direct them to customer service centers (under an hour); Update client address and meter location information (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.
- 3%
- 0%
- 97%
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, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 3%. Today's estimate: 3%.
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, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 15 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0025% to none (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.0025% | 609 of 655 | 1 of 15 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 15 |
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 87% of this job's working time as physical work. For 87% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 7% in a purpose-built cell, 80% in a structured facility. 1.67 of 3, the 12th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 13%
- In a purpose-built cell 7%
- In a structured facility 80%
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 . 15 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walk or drive vehicles along established routes to take readings of meter dials.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot (Boston Dynamics) with Spot CAM+IR and Enhanced Autonomy Payload (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 69% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 5.8 h | Stays with people | |
| Install new or replace broken meters.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 8% | 1.7 h50 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Perform preventative maintenance or minor repairs on meters.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Londian fully automated electricity meter production and testing lines (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Connect and disconnect utility services at specific locations.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, NIO Power Swap Station 4.0 (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Upload into office computers all information collected on hand-held computers during meter rounds, or return route books or hand-held computers to business offices so that data can be compiled.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Verify readings in cases where consumption appears to be abnormal, and record possible reasons for fluctuations.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot (Boston Dynamics) with gauge-reading/thermal payloads (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Dig dirt away from meters to take readings.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Read electric, gas, water, or steam consumption meters and enter data in route books or hand-held computers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot (with Orbit / Levatas gauge-reading models) (Boston Dynamics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 1% | 4 min3 min to 8 min | Stays with people | |
| Report to service departments any problems, such as meter irregularities, damaged equipment, or impediments to meter access, including dogs.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 1.0% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Answer customers' questions about services and charges, or direct them to customer service centers.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.9% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Update client address and meter location information.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.9% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Inspect meters for unauthorized connections, defects, and damage, such as broken seals.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot with Spot CAM+ / Orbit (automated visual inspection) (Boston Dynamics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 0.9% | 8 min4 min to 17 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.
- Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door1% now, 1% by 2028
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay19% now, 19% by 2028
- Power Distributors and Dispatchers91% now, 91% by 2028
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment26% now, 32% by 2028
- Electrical and Electronics Installers and Repairers, Transportation Equipment8% now, 8% by 2028
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers27% now, 27% 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 Meter Readers, Utilities is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 3% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 3% 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 Meter Readers, Utilities 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: Report to service departments any problems, such as meter irregularities, damaged equipment, or impediments to meter access, including dogs (100% of the task's time now); Answer customers' questions about services and charges, or direct them to customer service centers (100% of the task's time now); and Update client address and meter location information (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Meter Readers, Utilities stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Walk or drive vehicles along established routes to take readings of meter dials; Install new or replace broken meters; and Perform preventative maintenance or minor repairs on meters. Together such tasks are about 97% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Meter Readers, Utilities?
- 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 Meter Readers, Utilities?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 87% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 87% of the working time, 80% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.67 of 3. One example: Spot (Boston Dynamics) with Spot CAM+IR and Enhanced Autonomy Payload for "walk or drive vehicles along established routes to take readings of meter dials". 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 15 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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