Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 29% 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 71% of the time, stays with people.
Tend, control, or operate power-driven, stationary, or portable pumps and manifold systems to transfer gases, oil, other liquids, slurries, or powdered materials to and from various vessels and processes.
9,780 people do this job in the US. $61,770 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on12 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people28 h
Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 12 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 28 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage (about 7 h); Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times (about 2 h); Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances (about 2 h).
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.
- 29%
- 0%
- 71%
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, 5%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 29%. Today's estimate: 29%.
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 14 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.002% to none (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.002% | 701 of 708 | 1 of 14 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
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 73% of this job's working time as physical work. For 73% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 25% in a purpose-built cell, 48% in a structured facility. 1.21 of 3, the 54th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 27%
- In a purpose-built cell 25%
- In a structured facility 48%
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 . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Intelligent automatic lubricators (Dodge Industrial) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 18% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.Done daily by most who do it. | 17% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, ANYmal X (ANYbotics) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Robofuel (ABB/KUKA-based robotic refuelling cell) (Scott Automation + Robotics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Turn valves and start pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Honeywell Experion Movement Control (Blending and Movement suite) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Pump two or more materials into one tank to blend mixtures.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Yokogawa CENTUM VP oil movement system / in-line blending distributed control (Bapco refinery) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Tend vessels that store substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials, checking levels of substances by using calibrated rods or by reading mercury gauges and tank charts.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, ANYmal X (ANYbotics) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Add chemicals and solutions to tanks to ensure that specifications are met.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Veeder-Root Additive Injection System (AIS) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Test materials and solutions, using testing equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Automatic probe/cell sampling systems (API 8.2 / ASTM D4177 fast-loop sampling) (Mechatest) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Tend auxiliary equipment such as water treatment and refrigeration units, and heat exchangers.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ANYmal (ANYbotics) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now |
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.
- Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators45% now, 45% by 2028
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers45% now, 47% by 2028
- Wellhead Pumpers15% now, 15% by 2028
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders5% now, 5% by 2028
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators21% now, 22% by 2028
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators33% now, 33% 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 Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 29% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 29% 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 Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers 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: Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage (100% of the task's time now); Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times (100% of the task's time now); and Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment; Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary; and Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools. Together such tasks are about 71% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers?
- 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 Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 73% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 73% of the working time, 48% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.21 of 3. One example: ANYmal X (ANYbotics) for "monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary". 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 14 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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