Commercial Divers

Take appropriate safety precautions, such as monitoring dive lengths and depths and registering with authorities before diving expeditions begin.

AI: Fully automatable - Automated dive computers, monitoring systems, and software can monitor dive lengths/depths and perform registrations, so these oversight and administrative safety tasks can be fully automated.

Obtain information about diving tasks and environmental conditions.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can fully aggregate sensor feeds, environmental models, charts, and operational briefs to obtain comprehensive information about diving tasks and environmental conditions.

Inspect the condition of underwater steel or wood structures.

AI: Fully automatable - ROVs/AUVs equipped with cameras, sonar, and AI-based vision can inspect underwater steel and wood structures and identify corrosion or damage without requiring a human diver in many cases.

Inspect and test docks, ships, buoyage systems, plant intakes or outflows, or underwater pipelines, cables, or sewers, using closed circuit television, still photography, and testing equipment.

AI: Fully automatable - Remotely operated and autonomous systems combined with AI-driven imaging and testing tools already perform comprehensive inspections and testing of docks, pipelines, intakes, and sewers.

Operate underwater video, sonar, recording, or related equipment to investigate underwater structures or marine life.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can operate underwater video, sonar, and recording systems via AUVs/ROVs and perform automated data capture and analysis for investigations of structures and marine life.

Take test samples or photographs to assess the condition of vessels or structures.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025, ROVs/AUVs with cameras and sampling manipulators plus AI for navigation and image analysis can routinely collect photographs and many types of test samples without human divers.

Carry out non-destructive testing, such as tests for cracks on the legs of oil rigs at sea.

AI: Fully automatable - Non‑destructive testing (ultrasonic, visual, magnetic) is widely performed by ROVs/AUVs with AI-based defect detection, enabling routine crack inspection of offshore structures without divers.

Check and maintain diving equipment, such as helmets, masks, air tanks, harnesses, or gauges.

AI: Partial - AI can assist with diagnostics and control automated inspection tools and provide guidance, but cannot reliably perform complex hands-on maintenance on diverse diving gear by itself.

Communicate with workers on the surface while underwater, using signal lines or telephones.

AI: Partial - AI can manage and automate underwater communication systems, relay and translate messages, and monitor signal integrity, but cannot fully replace a human diver's real-time judgement using manual signal lines in all scenarios.

Supervise or train other divers, including hobby divers.

AI: Partial - AI can deliver training, simulations, and remote monitoring and provide performance feedback, but cannot fully replace in-person supervision and the legal/safety responsibilities of a human supervisor.

Repair ships, bridge foundations, or other structures below the water line, using caulk, bolts, and hand tools.

AI: Partial - Underwater repairs demand fine manipulation, adaptive problem-solving, and on-the-spot decision making that current robots and AI can only partially perform, so humans remain necessary for most repairs.

Recover objects by placing rigging around sunken objects, hooking rigging to crane lines, and operating winches, derricks, or cranes to raise objects.

AI: Partial - AI and ROVs can assist with rigging planning and some remote rigging tasks and can automate winch/crane control, but complex salvage operations with unpredictable loads still require human oversight and manual work.

Cut and weld steel, using underwater welding equipment, jigs, and supports.

AI: Partial - Underwater cutting and welding can be performed by remotely operated tooling and some robotic systems, but complex welds, quality control, and variable environments still often require skilled human divers or teleoperation oversight.

Install, inspect, clean, or repair piping or valves.

AI: Partial - Inspections and some cleaning/repair tasks on piping and valves can be done by ROVs and robotic tooling, but full installation and complex repairs remain only partially automatable and often need human intervention.

Install pilings or footings for piers or bridges.

AI: Partial - Heavy marine construction like installing pilings or footings can be assisted and partially automated with remotely controlled cranes and guidance systems, but precise placement in variable seabeds still relies on human supervision and diver work in many cases.

Salvage wrecked ships or their cargo, using pneumatic power velocity and hydraulic tools and explosive charges, when necessary.

AI: Partial - Salvage operations increasingly use ROVs, hydraulics, and remote tools for many tasks, but complex recoveries, judgement calls, and use of explosives often require human oversight and diver involvement.

Perform offshore oil or gas exploration or extraction duties, such as conducting underwater surveys or repairing and maintaining drilling rigs or platforms.

AI: Partial - Underwater surveying and many monitoring tasks for offshore oil and gas are highly automatable, but complex repairs, maintenance and extraction-related interventions remain only partially automatable and rely on human operators or divers.

Remove obstructions from strainers or marine railway or launching ways, using pneumatic or power hand tools.

AI: Partial - ROVs and powered tooling can remove some obstructions, but the variability and dexterity required for many clearing tasks mean automation is partial and divers remain frequently necessary.

Set or guide placement of pilings or sandbags to provide support for structures such as docks, bridges, cofferdams, or platforms.

AI: Partial - Robotic systems and guidance tech can help set or guide pilings and place sandbags, yet precise placement and adaptable responses in many environments still require human control or diver work.

Perform activities related to underwater search and rescue, salvage, recovery, or cleanup operations.

AI: Partial - Search, salvage, recovery, and cleanup increasingly use autonomous sensors and ROVs for search and debris removal, but live rescue and complex recovery tasks still need human divers and command decisions.

Drill holes in rock and rig explosives for underwater demolitions.

AI: Partial - Remotely operated vehicles and robotic tooling can drill and place charges in controlled subsea situations but human oversight, complex judgement, and regulatory constraints prevent full autonomous replacement by 2025.

Remove rubbish or pollution from the sea.

AI: Partial - Autonomous/skimmer vessels and robots can collect surface and some near‑surface debris, but complex, deep, or entangled pollution removal still requires human divers or manual intervention.

Set up dive sites for recreational instruction.

AI: Partial - Data, sensors, and some motorized aids can assist site setup, yet full physical preparation and dynamic safety judgement for recreational dive instruction still rely on humans.

Cultivate or harvest marine species or perform routine work on fish farms.

AI: Partial - Aquaculture already uses automated feeders, sensors, and monitoring, but many harvesting and nuanced husbandry tasks remain only partially automatable as of 2025.

Descend into water with the aid of diver helpers, using scuba gear or diving suits.

AI: Not automatable - Descending into water with the aid of diver helpers is a physical activity requiring human bodies and coordination that AI cannot perform on its own.