Converging AI and Human Roles

Study · Work & Evidence

O*NET

O*NET, the Occupational Information Network, is the US Department of Labor’s database of occupational information. It is developed under the sponsorship of the department’s Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, and the National Center for O*NET Development provides its core staff and, under ETA’s direction, manages its projects.1 The database holds more than 900 occupation profiles covering more than 55,000 jobs. They are organized by the O*NET-SOC taxonomy, updated in 2019 to align with the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification, which has 1,016 occupational titles, 923 of them O*NET data-level occupations.1 The database is free, published under a Creative Commons license and updated quarterly, with a primary update in the third quarter of each year.2

The current release, O*NET 31.0, came out in August 2026 and updated 218 occupations, including new task ratings for 205; data from job incumbents and occupational experts is now available for 912 occupations. In October 2026 O*NET’s websites added the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ updated employment totals and 2025–2035 projections.3 Its task file holds 18,838 task statements, each linked to exactly one occupation and typed as core, meaning critical to the occupation (rated relevant by at least 67% of respondents, with a mean importance of at least 3.0), or supplemental.4 A separate file of 165,780 rows gives each task’s importance, relevance and frequency ratings.5

MetaRoles anchors every role it covers to an O*NET-SOC code and builds each Role scorecard from that occupation’s core tasks, grading the evidence for AI in each one; the method is set out in how MetaRoles measures AI in roles. For concierges (39-6012.00), for example, O*NET OnLine shows the role’s tasks with their importance ratings, alongside BLS employment of 50,200 in 2025 and a median wage of $18.73 an hour,6 the figures used in how a building concierge’s job is shared with robots and AI. Other posts built on O*NET task lists include AI and robot receptionists, Klarna’s AI customer service claims and robotaxis and the taxi driver’s job.

Illustration: O*NET, the US occupational database whose core task lists form the rows of every MetaRoles Role scorecard.

Key facts

Maintained byNational Center for O*NET Development, sponsored by USDOL/ETA2
Current releaseO*NET 31.0, August 20263
TaxonomyO*NET-SOC 2019: 1,016 occupational titles, 923 data-level occupations1
Task statements18,838, each typed core or supplemental (O*NET 31.0)4
Task ratings165,780 rows of importance, relevance and frequency ratings (O*NET 31.0)5
Update cycleQuarterly, with a primary update in the third quarter2
LicenseCreative Commons; free to use2

Appears in

Sources

  1. O*NET Resource Center, About O*NET, retrieved 2026-10-13.
  2. O*NET Resource Center, O*NET 31.0 Database, retrieved 2026-10-13.
  3. O*NET Resource Center, What’s New? (August and October 2026 entries), retrieved 2026-10-13.
  4. O*NET Resource Center, Task Statements, O*NET 31.0 Data Dictionary, retrieved 2026-10-13.
  5. O*NET Resource Center, Task Ratings, O*NET 31.0 Data Dictionary, retrieved 2026-10-13.
  6. O*NET OnLine (O*NET 31.0; wages and employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), Summary Report for 39-6012.00, Concierges, retrieved 2026-10-13.