Occupation baseline · Research consensus

Will AI replace Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas?

Lower risk

Baseline AI displacement risk for Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas, aggregated from 3 research sources.

What this score means

Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas is among the least exposed roles in Construction & Trades. Most of what the job involves still sits outside what current AI can do, even as the tools around it keep changing. At 12 out of 100 it sits close to the Construction & Trades average of 14. Across the 3 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 5 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 Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas, most central first, showing 12 of 20.

01Train crews, and introduce procedures to make drill work more safe and effective.
02Observe pressure gauge and move throttles and levers to control the speed of rotary tables, and to regulate pressure of tools at bottoms of boreholes.
03Count sections of drill rod to determine depths of boreholes.
04Push levers and brake pedals to control gasoline, diesel, electric, or steam draw works that lower and raise drill pipes and casings in and out of wells.
05Connect sections of drill pipe, using hand tools and powered wrenches and tongs.
06Maintain records of footage drilled, location and nature of strata penetrated, materials and tools used, services rendered, and time required.
07Maintain and adjust machinery to ensure proper performance.
08Start and examine operation of slush pumps to ensure circulation and consistency of drilling fluid or mud in well.
09Locate and recover lost or broken bits, casings, and drill pipes from wells, using special tools.
10Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud.
11Direct rig crews in drilling and other activities, such as setting up rigs and completing or servicing wells.
12Monitor progress of drilling operations, and select and change drill bits according to the nature of strata, using hand tools.

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 Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas 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

Blast Driller · Cable Driller · Cable Tool Driller · Cable Tool Operator · Clean Out Driller · Core Drill Operator · Core Driller · Daylight Driller and related titles

Estimated displacement window

The dated estimate for this role is included in the full personalised report.

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Informational guidance based on published research, not professional career or financial advice. Scores update as new research is ingested.