Will AI replace Materials Scientists?
Life, Physical, and Social Science · O*NET 19-2032.00
Task exposure index for this occupation
Averaged across the week, this work sits at the high end of the exposure scale. O*NET breaks Materials Scientists into 13 distinct work activities. Weighted by how much of the week each one takes, 60% of the job sits at or above the threshold where current systems can do the task end to end. The single largest contributor is "Conduct research to gain information about products or processes", which scores 72 and takes roughly 14% of the week. That is the average for the job title. It is not a measurement of any particular person’s week, and the difference between the two is usually larger than the difference between job titles.
Model v1.2 · activity indices last updated 18 August 2026
What this occupation does
Research and study the structures and chemical properties of various natural and synthetic or composite materials, including metals, alloys, rubber, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers, and glass. Determine ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials with new or specific properties for use in a variety of products and applications. Includes glass scientists, ceramic scientists, metallurgical scientists, and polymer scientists.
The most exposed parts of the job
Scored 0–100 on how completely a current system could perform the activity.
- Write articles, books or other original materials in area of expertise.95
About 6% of a typical week
- Prepare scientific or technical reports or presentations.85
About 7% of a typical week
- Collect information from people through observation, interviews, or surveys.72
About 6% of a typical week
- Conduct research to gain information about products or processes.72
About 14% of a typical week
- Devise research or testing protocols.62
About 7% of a typical week
The least exposed parts
The same scale. These are the activities current systems handle worst.
- Instruct college students in physical or life sciences.34
About 4% of a typical week
- Test quality of materials or finished products.34
About 18% of a typical week
- Confer with clients to exchange information.40
About 6% of a typical week
- Advise others on the development or use of new technologies.44
About 7% of a typical week
- Monitor operational procedures in technical environments to ensure conformance to standards.52
About 5% of a typical week
How far off the rest is
Of those 13 activities, 4 can be performed by systems available today and 2 are outside what current approaches do at all. The remaining 7 sit in between — demonstrated in research or in narrow products, but not something you can hand over whole. We do not put dates on that middle group, because nobody can.
Compared with similar occupations
The nearest scoring roles in Life, Physical, and Social Science.
- Materials Scientists (this page)58
- Industrial-Organizational Psychologists58
- Atmospheric and Space Scientists58
- Hydrologists58
Why your own number is different
Two people with the title "Materials Scientists" can spend their weeks on almost entirely different parts of this list, and the parts they choose move the number far more than the title does. Who signs off when the work is wrong, whether the job needs you physically present, and how fast you have picked up the tools all change it again — and none of that is in an occupation average.
The assessment asks you to divide your own week across these activities and answer fourteen questions about the parts of the job an occupation average cannot see. It takes six to nine minutes.
Score my own roleFree to take. The full report is a paid subscription — the price and its terms are on the pricing section, before you start.
Questions
Will AI replace Materials Scientists?
We do not answer that, because nobody can. What is measurable is how much of the work is already doable by machine: for Materials Scientists, about 60% of a typical week, across 13 activities. The other 40% is not, and what happens to the job depends on things this index does not contain — cost, regulation, who carries the liability, and what the people doing it decide to do next.
What part of this job is most exposed?
"Write articles, books or other original materials in area of expertise" — it scores 95 out of 100 on task automatability and takes roughly 6% of the week.
What part is least exposed?
"Instruct college students in physical or life sciences", at 34 out of 100. Work like that is where the hours you protect tend to be worth the most.
Where do these numbers come from?
The activity list and the time weights come from O*NET 30.3, the US Department of Labor's occupational database. The exposure score for each activity is ours, from a published model — the weights, the priors and the limitations are all on the methodology page. No language model is involved in the arithmetic.
Does this apply to my job?
Only roughly. This is the average for the title, and the number that matters is the one for the week you actually work. The assessment asks you to divide your own time across these activities and answer fourteen questions about accountability, the parts of the job that need you specifically, and how fast you have adapted. That produces a different number, and usually a more useful one.
The full model — the weights, the priors and what it cannot see — is on the methodology page.