Occupation baseline · Research consensus
Will AI replace Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health?
Baseline AI displacement risk for Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health, aggregated from 8 research sources.
What this score means
Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health sits in the middle of the exposure range for Research & Science. Routine parts of the job are starting to automate, but much of it still depends on judgment, relationships, and context that today's models handle poorly. At 43 out of 100 it scores 4 points above the Research & Science average of 39. Across the 8 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 21 to 73, so the score is a weighted consensus rather than any single figure.
The number is a consensus estimate for the typical version of the role, built from published academic and industry research scored occupation by occupation. It is not a prediction about any individual. How scoring works
What this job actually involves
Exposure follows the work itself rather than the job title, so it is worth seeing what the role is made of. These are the tasks O*NET records for Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health, most central first, showing 12 of 22.
- 01Communicate scientific or technical information to the public, organizations, or internal audiences through oral briefings, written documents, workshops, conferences, training sessions, or public hearings.
- 02Monitor effects of pollution or land degradation and recommend means of prevention or control.
- 03Collect, synthesize, analyze, manage, and report environmental data, such as pollution emission measurements, atmospheric monitoring measurements, meteorological or mineralogical information, or soil or water samples.
- 04Review and implement environmental technical standards, guidelines, policies, and formal regulations that meet all appropriate requirements.
- 05Provide scientific or technical guidance, support, coordination, or oversight to governmental agencies, environmental programs, industry, or the public.
- 06Process and review environmental permits, licenses, or related materials.
- 07Conduct environmental audits or inspections or investigations of violations.
- 08Provide advice on proper standards and regulations or the development of policies, strategies, or codes of practice for environmental management.
- 09Prepare charts or graphs from data samples, providing summary information on the environmental relevance of the data.
- 10Research sources of pollution to determine their effects on the environment and to develop theories or methods of pollution abatement or control.
- 11Supervise or train students, environmental technologists, technicians, or other related staff.
- 12Monitor environmental impacts of development activities.
Task statements from O*NET by the National Center for O*NET Development, used under CC BY 4.0. The tasks are descriptive; the exposure score above is ours.
The research behind this score
This baseline aggregates 8 research sources that scored Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.
- 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026Anthropic
- 02Crashing Waves vs. Rising Tides: Preliminary Findings on AI Automation from Thousands of Worker Evaluations of Labor Market Tasks · 2026Mertens, Thompson et al., MIT FutureTech (2026)
- 03Global Automation Atlas: Task Substitution Exposure by Occupation · 2026Garg, Crosta, Baier (2026), arXiv:2605.17086
- 04The AI Jobs Transition Framework: Mapping AI's Near-Term Impact on Jobs · 2026OpenAI Economic Research (2026)
- 05Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure · 2025International Labour Organization, Working Paper 140 (2025)
- 06Working with AI: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations · 2025Tomlinson, Jaffe et al., Microsoft Research (2025)
- 07GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin, Rock (Science, 2024)
- 08AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023Felten, Raj, Seamans (2023)
Common questions
- How likely is AI to replace Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health?
- Published research puts Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health at 43 out of 100 for AI displacement risk, in the transitioning band. The number is a weighted consensus of 8 research sources and describes the typical version of the role, not any individual.
- Do researchers agree on the risk for Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health?
- Only partly. Individual estimates for Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health run from 21 to 73 out of 100 across the 8 sources behind this score, so the single number smooths over real disagreement. More recent and higher confidence studies carry more weight in it.
- Which research & science roles face similar AI exposure?
- The closest published research & science roles to Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health by score are Astronomers (43/100), Climate Change Policy Analysts (43/100), and Clinical and Counseling Psychologists (43/100). Each has its own page with the research behind its number.
Also covers
Air Analyst · Ecological Modeler · Environmental Analyst · Environmental Consultant · Environmental Designer · Environmental Health Specialist · Environmental Health and Safety Specialist (EHS Specialist) · Environmental Permitting Specialist and related titles
Estimated displacement window
The dated estimate for this role is included in the full personalised report.
Your number is not the baseline
Seniority, sector, and how much of your day is routine all shift the score. Answer a few questions and get your personal risk score free, no signup.
Get my personal scoreFree · No credit card · No signup
More research & science occupations
- Atmospheric and Space Scientists44/100
- Quality Control Analysts44/100
- Astronomers43/100
- Climate Change Policy Analysts43/100
- Clinical and Counseling Psychologists43/100
- Hydrologic Technicians42/100
- Industrial Ecologists42/100
- Physicists42/100
Informational guidance based on published research, not professional career or financial advice. Scores update as new research is ingested.