UK AI Exposure · Associate professional occupations
Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers
Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers navigate and pilot aircraft, prepare flight plans, authorise flight departures and arrivals, maintain radio, radar and/or visual contact with aircraft to ensure the safe movement of air traffic, check, regulate, adjust and test engines and other equipment prior to take-off and give flying lessons.
- Employees (UK)
- 20k
- Median annual pay
- £107,712
- Exposure score ?
- 0.9/10 Minimal 4.9/10 Moderate strict reading · with tools is 4.9/10 with-tools reading · strict is 0.9/10
- Wage exposure
- £194m £1.06bn
Higher exposure than 50% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
A meaningful slice of the task inventory is AI-reachable - the drafting, summarising, research and analysis parts especially. This role is at the point where the people who learn to direct AI well pull ahead of the people who don't.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Treat AI as a colleague you manage, not a tool you use. Identify the tasks where you'd describe the work to a capable junior - those are the tasks AI can do for you now. Spend your time on the judgment calls and the relationships instead.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where we start — flip the toggle to 'With tools' to see what AI plus the right context can compress.
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Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
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Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
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Work as part of a flight team with other crew members, especially during takeoffs and landings.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
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Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
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Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers" (53-2011.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 24 tasks · unaided
Record in log books information, such as flight times, distances flown, and fuel consumption.
Make announcements regarding flights, using public address systems.
Where humans still hold the line
22 of 24 tasks
Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
Work as part of a flight team with other crew members, especially during takeoffs and landings.
Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
Inspect aircraft for defects and malfunctions, according to pre-flight checklists.
Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
Monitor gauges, warning devices, and control panels to verify aircraft performance and to regulate engine speed.
Steer aircraft along planned routes, using autopilot and flight management computers.
Check passenger and cargo distributions and fuel amounts to ensure that weight and balance specifications are met.
Confer with flight dispatchers and weather forecasters to keep abreast of flight conditions.
Coordinate flight activities with ground crews and air traffic control and inform crew members of flight and test procedures.
Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.
Brief crews about flight details, such as destinations, duties, and responsibilities.
Conduct in-flight tests and evaluations at specified altitudes and in all types of weather to determine the receptivity and other characteristics of equipment and systems.
File instrument flight plans with air traffic control to ensure that flights are coordinated with other air traffic.
Perform minor maintenance work, or arrange for major maintenance.
Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.
Direct activities of aircraft crews during flights.
Evaluate other pilots or pilot-license applicants for proficiency.
Instruct other pilots and student pilots in aircraft operations and the principles of flight.
Plan and formulate flight activities and test schedules and prepare flight evaluation reports.
Tasks via O*NET "Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers" (53-2011.00).
What AI can already do
15 of 24 tasks · with tools
Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
Check passenger and cargo distributions and fuel amounts to ensure that weight and balance specifications are met.
Confer with flight dispatchers and weather forecasters to keep abreast of flight conditions.
Coordinate flight activities with ground crews and air traffic control and inform crew members of flight and test procedures.
Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.
Brief crews about flight details, such as destinations, duties, and responsibilities.
File instrument flight plans with air traffic control to ensure that flights are coordinated with other air traffic.
Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.
Evaluate other pilots or pilot-license applicants for proficiency.
Record in log books information, such as flight times, distances flown, and fuel consumption.
Make announcements regarding flights, using public address systems.
Plan and formulate flight activities and test schedules and prepare flight evaluation reports.
Where humans still hold the line
9 of 24 tasks
Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
Work as part of a flight team with other crew members, especially during takeoffs and landings.
Inspect aircraft for defects and malfunctions, according to pre-flight checklists.
Monitor gauges, warning devices, and control panels to verify aircraft performance and to regulate engine speed.
Steer aircraft along planned routes, using autopilot and flight management computers.
Conduct in-flight tests and evaluations at specified altitudes and in all types of weather to determine the receptivity and other characteristics of equipment and systems.
Perform minor maintenance work, or arrange for major maintenance.
Direct activities of aircraft crews during flights.
Instruct other pilots and student pilots in aircraft operations and the principles of flight.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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