← All 785 jobsFile 17-3013
Mechanical Drafters
Mostly untouched
AI barely touches this work so far. The BLS expects 6% fewer of these jobs by 2035.
- Rank
- #564 of 785 jobs, by how much of the work AI does
- US jobs, 2025 to 2035
- -6% All jobs: +3.5%
- Median US pay
- $71,550 a year, 2025
- People doing it
- 42,100 in the US, with about 2,900 openings a year
The work, 7 activities
The job description, marked up.
Every activity in this job, the biggest first. Tap a line for the evidence.
- deleAI does this
- +AIAI helps
- stetStill yours
AI helps with this: Create visual designs or displays52%
People asked AI for help with this in about 1 in 78 conversations, and it got them there 40% of the time.
AI helps with this: Evaluate designs, specifications, or other technical data15%
People asked AI for help with this in about 1 in 903 conversations, and it got them there 86% of the time.
Still yours: Design electrical or electronic systems or equipment9%
Barely appears in AI conversations: fewer than 1 in 2,000.
AI helps with this: Evaluate the quality or accuracy of data9%
People asked AI for help with this in about 1 in 426 conversations, and it got them there 84% of the time. In this job the work is hands-on, so AI can only assist.
AI does this: Communicate with others about specifications or project details7%
AI performed this in about 1 in 117 Copilot conversations and completed it 78% of the time.
AI helps with this: Confer with clients to determine needs or order specifications5%
People asked AI for help with this in about 1 in 502 conversations, and it got them there 54% of the time.
Still yours: Supervise personnel activities4%
Barely appears in AI conversations: fewer than 1 in 2,000.
2025 to 2035
Ten years from now.
For every 100 of these jobs in 2025, the BLS projects 94 in 2035. Across all US jobs, about 104.
Even shrinking, it should still see about 2,900 openings a year as people retire or move on.
BLS on AIDesign software makes drafting more efficient, lowering demand. Source ↗
Nearby
Where your skills travel.
Jobs that share the most work with this one, where AI does less of it.
The wire
On the wire.
Nothing filed about this job yet. The latest from the Work front:
How to read this file.
deleAI does this. In US Bing Copilot conversations from January to September 2024, AI itself performed the activity, completed it and made a real difference often enough to count.
+AIAI helps. People brought the activity to AI as their own goal, and it usually got them there.
stetStill yours. It barely shows up in AI use, AI rarely finishes it, or in this job it needs hands.
Shares are weighted by how much each activity matters in the job, using O*NET. Microsoft’s own AI applicability score for this job is 0.17, higher than 61% of jobs.
Doing an activity is not doing a job. The researchers behind this data warn against reading it as job loss, and so do we. It is US data; the shape of the work travels.
Sources: Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025) · O*NET OnLine, 17-3013 · BLS Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
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