CAD, drawing
and architectural technicians
CAD, drawing and architectural technicians design and prepare technical drawings, plans, maps, charts and similar items and install, operate and maintain 3D printers.
- Employees (UK)
- 41k
- Median annual pay
- £34,465
- Exposure score ?
- 0.9/10 Minimal 9.1/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.1/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.9/10
- Wage exposure
- £127m £1.29bn
Higher exposure than 50% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's models. Roles like this are being rebuilt, usually not by disappearing but by one person using AI to produce what several did.
If you are in this role
Be the person doing the rebuilding. People who learn to run this kind of work with AI become very valuable, and the ones who wait tend to have the change made for them.
Where the work usually starts.
These are the most important tasks a language model can already handle directly. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around them, so they stop eating the team's time.
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Confer with engineering staff and other personnel to resolve problems.
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Study work order requests to determine type of service, such as lighting or power, demanded by installation.
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Determine the order of work and the method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Draft detail and assembly drawings of design components, circuitry or printed circuit boards, using computer-assisted equipment or standard drafting techniques and devices.
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Draft working drawings, wiring diagrams, wiring connection specifications, or cross-sections of underground cables, as required for instructions to installation crew.
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Assemble documentation packages and produce drawing sets to be checked by an engineer or an architect.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Electrical and Electronics Drafters" (17-3012.00).
What AI can already do
7 of 30 tasks, unaided
Confer with engineering staff and other personnel to resolve problems.
Study work order requests to determine type of service, such as lighting or power, demanded by installation.
Determine the order of work and the method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing.
Key and program specified commands and engineering specifications into computer system to change functions and test final layout.
Write technical reports and draw charts that display statistics and data.
Prepare and interpret specifications, calculating weights, volumes, or stress factors.
Use computer-aided drafting equipment or conventional drafting stations, technical handbooks, tables, calculators, or traditional drafting tools, such as boards, pencils, protractors, or T-squares.
What still needs a person
23 of 30 tasks
Draft detail and assembly drawings of design components, circuitry or printed circuit boards, using computer-assisted equipment or standard drafting techniques and devices.
Draft working drawings, wiring diagrams, wiring connection specifications, or cross-sections of underground cables, as required for instructions to installation crew.
Assemble documentation packages and produce drawing sets to be checked by an engineer or an architect.
Review completed construction drawings and cost estimates for accuracy and conformity to standards and regulations.
Consult with engineers to discuss or interpret design concepts, or determine requirements of detailed working drawings.
Measure factors that affect installation and arrangement of equipment, such as distances to be spanned by wire and cable.
Design electrical systems, such as lighting systems.
Draw master sketches to scale showing relation of proposed installations to existing facilities and exact specifications and dimensions.
Review work orders or procedural manuals and confer with vendors or design staff to resolve problems or modify design.
Locate files relating to specified design project in database library, load program into computer, and record completed job data.
Examine electronic schematics and supporting documents to develop, compute, and verify specifications for drafting data, such as configuration of parts, dimensions, or tolerances.
Compare logic element configuration on display screen with engineering schematics and calculate figures to convert, redesign, or modify element.
Review blueprints to determine customer requirements and consult with assembler regarding schematics, wiring procedures, or conductor paths.
Generate computer tapes of final layout design to produce layered photo masks or photo plotting design onto film.
Visit proposed installation sites and draw rough sketches of location.
Explain drawings to production or construction teams and provide adjustments, as necessary.
Copy drawings of printed circuit board fabrication using print machine or blueprinting procedure.
Select drill size to drill test head, according to test design and specifications, and submit guide layout to designated department.
Reproduce working drawings on copy machines or trace drawings in ink.
Plot electrical test points on layout sheets and draw schematics for wiring test fixture heads to frames.
Supervise and coordinate work activities of workers engaged in drafting, designing layouts, assembling, or testing printed circuit boards.
Train students to use drafting machines and to prepare schematic diagrams, block diagrams, control drawings, logic diagrams, integrated circuit drawings, or interconnection diagrams.
Supervise or train other technologists, technicians, or drafters.
Tasks via O*NET "Electrical and Electronics Drafters" (17-3012.00).
What AI can already do
28 of 30 tasks, with tools
Draft detail and assembly drawings of design components, circuitry or printed circuit boards, using computer-assisted equipment or standard drafting techniques and devices.
Draft working drawings, wiring diagrams, wiring connection specifications, or cross-sections of underground cables, as required for instructions to installation crew.
Assemble documentation packages and produce drawing sets to be checked by an engineer or an architect.
Review completed construction drawings and cost estimates for accuracy and conformity to standards and regulations.
Consult with engineers to discuss or interpret design concepts, or determine requirements of detailed working drawings.
Confer with engineering staff and other personnel to resolve problems.
Measure factors that affect installation and arrangement of equipment, such as distances to be spanned by wire and cable.
Design electrical systems, such as lighting systems.
Draw master sketches to scale showing relation of proposed installations to existing facilities and exact specifications and dimensions.
Review work orders or procedural manuals and confer with vendors or design staff to resolve problems or modify design.
Locate files relating to specified design project in database library, load program into computer, and record completed job data.
Examine electronic schematics and supporting documents to develop, compute, and verify specifications for drafting data, such as configuration of parts, dimensions, or tolerances.
Compare logic element configuration on display screen with engineering schematics and calculate figures to convert, redesign, or modify element.
Review blueprints to determine customer requirements and consult with assembler regarding schematics, wiring procedures, or conductor paths.
Study work order requests to determine type of service, such as lighting or power, demanded by installation.
Generate computer tapes of final layout design to produce layered photo masks or photo plotting design onto film.
Determine the order of work and the method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing.
Visit proposed installation sites and draw rough sketches of location.
Explain drawings to production or construction teams and provide adjustments, as necessary.
Key and program specified commands and engineering specifications into computer system to change functions and test final layout.
Copy drawings of printed circuit board fabrication using print machine or blueprinting procedure.
Reproduce working drawings on copy machines or trace drawings in ink.
Plot electrical test points on layout sheets and draw schematics for wiring test fixture heads to frames.
Write technical reports and draw charts that display statistics and data.
Supervise and coordinate work activities of workers engaged in drafting, designing layouts, assembling, or testing printed circuit boards.
Train students to use drafting machines and to prepare schematic diagrams, block diagrams, control drawings, logic diagrams, integrated circuit drawings, or interconnection diagrams.
Prepare and interpret specifications, calculating weights, volumes, or stress factors.
Use computer-aided drafting equipment or conventional drafting stations, technical handbooks, tables, calculators, or traditional drafting tools, such as boards, pencils, protractors, or T-squares.
What still needs a person
2 of 30 tasks
Select drill size to drill test head, according to test design and specifications, and submit guide layout to designated department.
Supervise or train other technologists, technicians, or drafters.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Associate professional occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons