Chartered surveyors
Chartered surveyors conduct surveys related to the measurement, management, valuation and development of land, natural resources, buildings, other types of property, and infrastructure such as harbours, roads and railway lines.
- Employees (UK)
- 58k
- Median annual pay
- £45,673
- Exposure score ?
- 1.1/10 Minimal 9.3/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.3/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.1/10
- Wage exposure
- £291m £2.46bn
Higher exposure than 58% 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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Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
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Train assistants and helpers, and direct their work in such activities as performing surveys or drafting maps.
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Develop criteria for the design and modification of survey instruments.
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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Direct or conduct surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
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Prepare and maintain sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
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Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
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 "Surveyors" (17-1022.00).
What AI can already do
3 of 24 tasks, unaided
Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
Train assistants and helpers, and direct their work in such activities as performing surveys or drafting maps.
Develop criteria for the design and modification of survey instruments.
What still needs a person
21 of 24 tasks
Direct or conduct surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
Prepare and maintain sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
Verify the accuracy of survey data, including measurements and calculations conducted at survey sites.
Search legal records, survey records, and land titles to obtain information about property boundaries in areas to be surveyed.
Record the results of surveys, including the shape, contour, location, elevation, and dimensions of land or land features.
Prepare, or supervise preparation of, all data, charts, plots, maps, records, and documents related to surveys.
Compute geodetic measurements and interpret survey data to determine positions, shapes, and elevations of geomorphic and topographic features.
Calculate heights, depths, relative positions, property lines, and other characteristics of terrain.
Plan and conduct ground surveys designed to establish baselines, elevations, and other geodetic measurements.
Establish fixed points for use in making maps, using geodetic and engineering instruments.
Determine longitudes and latitudes of important features and boundaries in survey areas, using theodolites, transits, levels, and satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS).
Coordinate findings with the work of engineering and architectural personnel, clients, and others concerned with projects.
Analyze survey objectives and specifications to prepare survey proposals or to direct others in survey proposal preparation.
Testify as an expert witness in court cases on land survey issues, such as property boundaries.
Adjust surveying instruments to maintain their accuracy.
Develop criteria for survey methods and procedures.
Survey bodies of water to determine navigable channels and to secure data for construction of breakwaters, piers, and other marine structures.
Direct aerial surveys of specified geographical areas.
Conduct research in surveying and mapping methods, using knowledge of photogrammetric map compilation and electronic data processing.
Locate and mark sites selected for geophysical prospecting activities, such as efforts to locate petroleum or other mineral products.
Determine specifications for equipment to be used for aerial photography, as well as altitudes from which to photograph terrain.
Tasks via O*NET "Surveyors" (17-1022.00).
What AI can already do
21 of 24 tasks, with tools
Direct or conduct surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
Prepare and maintain sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
Verify the accuracy of survey data, including measurements and calculations conducted at survey sites.
Search legal records, survey records, and land titles to obtain information about property boundaries in areas to be surveyed.
Record the results of surveys, including the shape, contour, location, elevation, and dimensions of land or land features.
Prepare, or supervise preparation of, all data, charts, plots, maps, records, and documents related to surveys.
Compute geodetic measurements and interpret survey data to determine positions, shapes, and elevations of geomorphic and topographic features.
Calculate heights, depths, relative positions, property lines, and other characteristics of terrain.
Plan and conduct ground surveys designed to establish baselines, elevations, and other geodetic measurements.
Train assistants and helpers, and direct their work in such activities as performing surveys or drafting maps.
Coordinate findings with the work of engineering and architectural personnel, clients, and others concerned with projects.
Analyze survey objectives and specifications to prepare survey proposals or to direct others in survey proposal preparation.
Testify as an expert witness in court cases on land survey issues, such as property boundaries.
Develop criteria for survey methods and procedures.
Survey bodies of water to determine navigable channels and to secure data for construction of breakwaters, piers, and other marine structures.
Direct aerial surveys of specified geographical areas.
Conduct research in surveying and mapping methods, using knowledge of photogrammetric map compilation and electronic data processing.
Locate and mark sites selected for geophysical prospecting activities, such as efforts to locate petroleum or other mineral products.
Determine specifications for equipment to be used for aerial photography, as well as altitudes from which to photograph terrain.
Develop criteria for the design and modification of survey instruments.
What still needs a person
3 of 24 tasks
Establish fixed points for use in making maps, using geodetic and engineering instruments.
Determine longitudes and latitudes of important features and boundaries in survey areas, using theodolites, transits, levels, and satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS).
Adjust surveying instruments to maintain their accuracy.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in 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