Quantity surveyors
Quantity surveyors advise on financial and contractual matters relating to, and prepare bills of quantities for, construction projects and provide other support functions concerning the financing and materials required for building projects.
- Employees (UK)
- 38k
- Median annual pay
- £51,950
- Exposure score ?
- 1.8/10 Minimal 8.8/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 8.8/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.8/10
- Wage exposure
- £355m £1.74bn
Higher exposure than 77% 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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Create or maintain formal engineering documents, such as schematics, bills of materials, components or materials specifications, or packaging requirements.
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Communicate operating characteristics or performance experience to other engineers or designers for training or new product development purposes.
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Develop customer documentation, such as performance specifications, training manuals, or operating instructions.
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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Create schematics and physical layouts of integrated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components or packaged assemblies consistent with process, functional, or package constraints.
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Evaluate materials, fabrication methods, joining methods, surface treatments, or packaging to ensure acceptable processing, performance, cost, sustainability, or availability.
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Refine final microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design to optimize design for target dimensions, physical tolerances, or processing constraints.
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 "Microsystems Engineers" (17-2199.06).
What AI can already do
7 of 31 tasks, unaided
Create or maintain formal engineering documents, such as schematics, bills of materials, components or materials specifications, or packaging requirements.
Communicate operating characteristics or performance experience to other engineers or designers for training or new product development purposes.
Develop customer documentation, such as performance specifications, training manuals, or operating instructions.
Design or develop industrial air quality microsystems, such as carbon dioxide fixing devices.
Design or develop sensors to reduce the energy or resource requirements to operate appliances, such as washing machines or dishwashing machines.
Design sensors or switches that require little or no power to operate for environmental monitoring or industrial metering applications.
Research or develop emerging microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems to convert nontraditional energy sources into power, such as ambient energy harvesters that convert environmental vibrations into usable energy.
What still needs a person
24 of 31 tasks
Create schematics and physical layouts of integrated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components or packaged assemblies consistent with process, functional, or package constraints.
Evaluate materials, fabrication methods, joining methods, surface treatments, or packaging to ensure acceptable processing, performance, cost, sustainability, or availability.
Refine final microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design to optimize design for target dimensions, physical tolerances, or processing constraints.
Investigate characteristics such as cost, performance, or process capability of potential microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device designs, using simulation or modeling software.
Conduct harsh environmental testing, accelerated aging, device characterization, or field trials to validate devices, using inspection tools, testing protocols, peripheral instrumentation, or modeling and simulation software.
Develop or file intellectual property and patent disclosure or application documents related to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, products, or systems.
Conduct or oversee the conduct of prototype development or microfabrication activities to ensure compliance to specifications and promote effective production processes.
Conduct experimental or virtual studies to investigate characteristics and processing principles of potential microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
Conduct analyses addressing issues such as failure, reliability, or yield improvement.
Devise microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production methods, such as integrated circuit fabrication, lithographic electroform modeling, or micromachining.
Plan or schedule engineering research or development projects involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
Develop or validate specialized materials characterization procedures, such as thermal withstand, fatigue, notch sensitivity, abrasion, or hardness tests.
Propose product designs involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, considering market data or customer requirements.
Validate fabrication processes for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), using statistical process control implementation, virtual process simulations, data mining, or life testing.
Demonstrate miniaturized systems that contain components, such as microsensors, microactuators, or integrated electronic circuits, fabricated on silicon or silicon carbide wafers.
Develop formal documentation for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, including quality assurance guidance, quality control protocols, process control checklists, data collection, or reporting.
Manage new product introduction projects to ensure effective deployment of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices or applications.
Conduct acceptance tests, vendor-qualification protocols, surveys, audits, corrective-action reviews, or performance monitoring of incoming materials or components to ensure conformance to specifications.
Develop or implement microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) processing tools, fixtures, gages, dies, molds, or trays.
Identify, procure, or develop test equipment, instrumentation, or facilities for characterization of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications.
Develop or validate product-specific test protocols, acceptance thresholds, or inspection tools for quality control testing or performance measurement.
Oversee operation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication or assembly equipment, such as handling, singulation, assembly, wire-bonding, soldering, or package sealing.
Consider environmental issues when proposing product designs involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
Design or develop energy products using nanomaterials or nanoprocesses, such as micro-nano machining.
Tasks via O*NET "Microsystems Engineers" (17-2199.06).
What AI can already do
23 of 31 tasks, with tools
Create schematics and physical layouts of integrated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components or packaged assemblies consistent with process, functional, or package constraints.
Evaluate materials, fabrication methods, joining methods, surface treatments, or packaging to ensure acceptable processing, performance, cost, sustainability, or availability.
Refine final microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design to optimize design for target dimensions, physical tolerances, or processing constraints.
Investigate characteristics such as cost, performance, or process capability of potential microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device designs, using simulation or modeling software.
Develop or file intellectual property and patent disclosure or application documents related to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, products, or systems.
Conduct or oversee the conduct of prototype development or microfabrication activities to ensure compliance to specifications and promote effective production processes.
Create or maintain formal engineering documents, such as schematics, bills of materials, components or materials specifications, or packaging requirements.
Conduct experimental or virtual studies to investigate characteristics and processing principles of potential microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
Conduct analyses addressing issues such as failure, reliability, or yield improvement.
Plan or schedule engineering research or development projects involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
Propose product designs involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, considering market data or customer requirements.
Validate fabrication processes for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), using statistical process control implementation, virtual process simulations, data mining, or life testing.
Develop formal documentation for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, including quality assurance guidance, quality control protocols, process control checklists, data collection, or reporting.
Manage new product introduction projects to ensure effective deployment of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices or applications.
Conduct acceptance tests, vendor-qualification protocols, surveys, audits, corrective-action reviews, or performance monitoring of incoming materials or components to ensure conformance to specifications.
Communicate operating characteristics or performance experience to other engineers or designers for training or new product development purposes.
Develop customer documentation, such as performance specifications, training manuals, or operating instructions.
Develop or validate product-specific test protocols, acceptance thresholds, or inspection tools for quality control testing or performance measurement.
Design or develop industrial air quality microsystems, such as carbon dioxide fixing devices.
Design or develop sensors to reduce the energy or resource requirements to operate appliances, such as washing machines or dishwashing machines.
Design sensors or switches that require little or no power to operate for environmental monitoring or industrial metering applications.
Research or develop emerging microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems to convert nontraditional energy sources into power, such as ambient energy harvesters that convert environmental vibrations into usable energy.
Consider environmental issues when proposing product designs involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
What still needs a person
8 of 31 tasks
Conduct harsh environmental testing, accelerated aging, device characterization, or field trials to validate devices, using inspection tools, testing protocols, peripheral instrumentation, or modeling and simulation software.
Devise microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production methods, such as integrated circuit fabrication, lithographic electroform modeling, or micromachining.
Develop or validate specialized materials characterization procedures, such as thermal withstand, fatigue, notch sensitivity, abrasion, or hardness tests.
Demonstrate miniaturized systems that contain components, such as microsensors, microactuators, or integrated electronic circuits, fabricated on silicon or silicon carbide wafers.
Develop or implement microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) processing tools, fixtures, gages, dies, molds, or trays.
Identify, procure, or develop test equipment, instrumentation, or facilities for characterization of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications.
Oversee operation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication or assembly equipment, such as handling, singulation, assembly, wire-bonding, soldering, or package sealing.
Design or develop energy products using nanomaterials or nanoprocesses, such as micro-nano machining.
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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