Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
In short: today's best AI models could do about 21% 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 79% of the time, stays with people.
Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines, and steam boilers.
28,250 people do this job in the US. $78,620 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on9 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people31 h
Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 9 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 31 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Develop operation, safety, and maintenance procedures or assist in their development (about 6 h); Maintain daily logs of operation, maintenance, and safety activities, including test results, instrument readings, and details of equipment malfunctions and maintenance work (about 2 h); Investigate and report on accidents (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.
- 21%
- 0%
- 79%
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, 9%. Today's estimate: 21%.
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, 0.48% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 52nd largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 25 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0046% to 0.0018% (released February and March 2025); 0.53% to 0.48% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0046% | 621 of 708 | 2 of 25 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.0018% | 683 of 703 | 1 of 25 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 25 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.53% | 47 of 434 | 1 of 25 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.48% | 52 of 447 | 1 of 25 |
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 85% of this job's working time as physical work. For 61% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 9% in a purpose-built cell, 53% in a structured facility. 1.14 of 3, the 72nd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 15%
- No robot shown 24%
- In a purpose-built cell 9%
- In a structured facility 53%
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 . 25 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate or tend stationary engines, boilers, and auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, compressors, or air-conditioning equipment, to supply and maintain steam or heat for buildings, marine vessels, or pneumatic tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Cleaver-Brooks Hawk ICS / Hawk 1000-4000 boiler room control (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 21% | 1.7 h25 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop operation, safety, and maintenance procedures or assist in their development.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Analyze problems and take appropriate action to ensure continuous and reliable operation of equipment and systems.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Supervise the work of assistant stationary engineers, turbine operators, boiler tenders, or air conditioning and refrigeration operators and mechanics.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 1.3 h25 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Monitor and inspect equipment, computer terminals, switches, valves, gauges, alarms, safety devices, and meters to detect leaks or malfunctions and to ensure that equipment is operating efficiently and safely.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot (Boston Dynamics) 'Energy Dog' (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Maintain daily logs of operation, maintenance, and safety activities, including test results, instrument readings, and details of equipment malfunctions and maintenance work.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Perform or arrange for repairs, such as complete overhauls, replacement of defective valves, gaskets, or bearings, or fabrication of new parts.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Fire coal furnaces by hand or with stokers and gas- or oil-fed boilers, using automatic gas feeds or oil pumps.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Honeywell 7800 Series burner control units (RM7800/RM7840 etc.) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Monitor boiler water, chemical, and fuel levels, and make adjustments to maintain required levels.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spirax Sarco automatic boiler level control systems (level probes, controllers, modulating feedwater valves) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Check the air quality of ventilation systems and make adjustments to ensure compliance with mandated safety codes.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, CO2-based demand-controlled ventilation (sensors + BAS controller + modulating outdoor-air damper actuators) (HVAC/BAS industry; characterized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Indoor Environment Group) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Install burners and auxiliary equipment, using hand tools.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.3 work days | Stays with people | |
| Operate mechanical hoppers and provide assistance in their adjustment and repair.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, EBARA automatic crane system with AI waste identification (with Ridge-i) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | 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.
- Power Plant Operators45% now, 45% by 2028
- Biomass Plant Technicians7% now, 7% by 2028
- Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door1% now, 1% by 2028
- Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators45% now, 45% by 2028
- Mechanical Engineers23% now, 70% by 2028
- Geothermal Technicians35% now, 37% 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 Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 21% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 22% 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 Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators 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: Develop operation, safety, and maintenance procedures or assist in their development (100% of the task's time now); Maintain daily logs of operation, maintenance, and safety activities, including test results, instrument readings, and details of equipment malfunctions and maintenance work (100% of the task's time now); and Investigate and report on accidents (96% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Operate or tend stationary engines, boilers, and auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, compressors, or air-conditioning equipment, to supply and maintain steam or heat for buildings, marine vessels, or pneumatic tools; Analyze problems and take appropriate action to ensure continuous and reliable operation of equipment and systems; and Supervise the work of assistant stationary engineers, turbine operators, boiler tenders, or air conditioning and refrigeration operators and mechanics. Together such tasks are about 79% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.48% went to this job's tasks, the 52nd largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 25 tasks appeared. 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 Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 85% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 61% of the working time, 53% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.14 of 3. One example: Cleaver-Brooks Hawk ICS / Hawk 1000-4000 boiler room control for "operate or tend stationary engines, boilers, and auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, compressors, or air-conditioning equipment, to supply and maintain steam or heat for buildings, marine vessels, or pneumatic tools". 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 25 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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