Will AI replace Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers?

What this score means

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers is among the least exposed roles in Transportation. Most of what the job involves still sits outside what current AI can do, even as the tools around it keep changing. At 16 out of 100 it sits close to the Transportation average of 18. Across the 3 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 8 to 20, 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 Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers, most central first, showing 12 of 14.

• 01Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.
• 02Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.
• 03Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.
• 04Turn valves and start pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.
• 05Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.
• 06Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.
• 07Tend 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.
• 08Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.
• 09Read operating schedules or instructions or receive verbal orders to determine amounts to be pumped.
• 10Test materials and solutions, using testing equipment.
• 11Tend auxiliary equipment such as water treatment and refrigeration units, and heat exchangers.
• 12Add chemicals and solutions to tanks to ensure that specifications are met.

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 3 research sources that scored Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.

• 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026
• 02GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024
• 03AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023

Also covers

Acid Loader · Acid Pump Operator · Airveyor Operator · Boom Pump Operator · Booster Station Operator · Brewery Pumper · Caustic Pump Operator · Chemical Pumper and related titles

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