# Will transportation planners be replaced by AI? Updated October 2026 Transportation planners score 56 out of 100 for AI exposure. AI helps with 83% of their task time, and they stay in charge. AI can do another 10%. 7% needs a person. - **10%** AI can do it - **83%** AI helps - **7%** Needs a person High exposure Higher than 86% of the 923 jobs we scored. ## Task by task We graded 22 tasks, most exposed first. AI can do 2 of them, helps with 18 and leaves 2 to people. | Task | AI exposure | | --- | --- | | Prepare reports or recommendations on transportation planning. AI drafts planning reports well; planner reviews content. | 66% AI can do it | | Analyze information from traffic counting programs. Traffic count data processing is largely scriptable and automatable. | 62% AI can do it | | Prepare necessary documents to obtain planned project approvals or permits. AI drafts approval paperwork; staff verify and submit. | 60% AI helps | | Analyze information related to transportation, such as land use policies, environmental impact of projects, or long-range planning needs. AI summarizes policy and environmental documents; analyst interprets. | 58% AI helps | | Develop computer models to address transportation planning issues. AI coding assistants speed model building; expert validates results. | 55% AI helps | ## How transportation planners compare All jobs (923) Life, physical and social science (60) The dark line is **transportation planners, at 56**. Each dot is a score, and darker dots mean more jobs share it. The short marks are the averages, 37 for all jobs and 47 for life, physical and social science. ## Pay and outlook in the US Median pay $101,110 a year, May 2025 People employed 37,100 in the US, May 2025 Projected change in jobs \-0.2% from 2024 to 2034 ## Skills to build - Validate travel demand models in ArcGIS software - Write SQL queries against traffic count databases - Lead public hearings on transportation project designs - Review AI drafted planning reports before council submission - Direct field crews for urban traffic counting programs - Build project impact dashboards in Tableau ## Safer roles nearby 5 related jobs with lower scores. - [Transportation engineers46 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/transportation-engineers/) - [Urban planners53 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/urban-planners/) - [Logistics managers51 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/logistics-managers/) - [Logistics engineers54 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/logistics-engineers/) - [Logisticians53 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/logisticians/) ## Questions about transportation planners and AI Will AI replace transportation planners? Partly. About 4 in 10 working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly drafting planning reports and processing traffic count data. What stays with people is the public meeting, the advocacy for a jurisdiction's approval, and the engineering judgment that decides which project gets built. Which tasks is AI taking over for transportation planners? Report writing has the highest exposure score at 66, followed by traffic count analysis at 62. AI drafts planning reports and scripts the processing of count data, so planners spend less time formatting and more time checking whether the results hold for a specific corridor. Approval paperwork, scored 60, follows the same pattern. Which transportation planner tasks stay human? Public meetings, jurisdiction representation, and engineering collaboration stay with people. Public meetings score 12 on exposure and representing jurisdictions scores 15, because feedback and advocacy need a person in the room who answers for the decision. Collaboration with engineers scores 30 and stays mostly human-led. How can transportation planners stay valuable? Take responsibility for the model and the data. Build and validate travel demand models in ArcGIS and SQL, then document assumptions so a reviewer can trace each output. Use Tableau and Excel to test how a project changes traffic counts before a council sees it. Attend public hearings yourself, since in-person trust is hard to automate. ## Related jobs - [Traffic technicians38 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/traffic-technicians/) - [Logistics analysts63 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/logistics-analysts/) - [Civil engineers45 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/civil-engineers/) - [Project managers53 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/project-managers/) ## Next steps for transportation planners - ### Check your job Your job title is a rough guide. Your tasks decide your score. Paste your job description or CV to see which tasks AI can do. [Check your job](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/ai-exposure-checker/) [Check your CV](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/cv-checker/) - ### Estimate team savings The score is per person. Add headcount and salary to see the hours AI can take on in a team of transportation planners, and what they cost. [Estimate what AI saves a team of transportation planners](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/team-ai-audit/?role=transportation-planners) [Work out the return on automation](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/ai-savings-calculator/) ### Check which roles in your team AI can take on We map your team's tasks, show what AI can do today and build the automations that pay back first. [Book an AI audit](https://www.aigentcy.com/audit/) ## Related topics - [**Jobs AI can't replace**Roustabouts score lowest, at 6.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-cant-replace/) - [**Jobs most at risk from AI**Proofreaders score highest, at 76.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-most-exposed-to-ai/) - [**High-paying jobs with low AI exposure**Pediatric surgeons earn a median $559,030 and score 29.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/high-paying-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Entry-level jobs with low AI exposure**Roustabouts need little prior training and score 6.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/entry-level-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Jobs AI speeds up the most**AI helps with 98% of the task time for health informatics specialists.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-speeds-up/) - [**AI and jobs in Malta**15 iGaming roles graded task by task.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/malta/) - [**Skills that keep work human**The skills to build in the jobs AI changes least.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/skills/) - [**Jobs A to Z**Every job we score, by first letter.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs/) - [**AI exposure by industry**Average scores for 22 job groups.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/industries/) - [**Write a CV screening software can read**How applicant tracking systems read a CV, and what to change.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cv-screening-guide/) - [**AI for businesses**The tasks to automate first in each team and industry.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-for/) - [**How we score AI exposure**The grading, the weights and every source.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/) Sources and licences Occupation data from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and modified by Aigentcy. O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Wage, employment and projection data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. EU occupation names from ESCO, European Commission. AI usage signals from the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY) and Microsoft Research (CC BY 4.0). [Methodology and sources](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/). Scores © Aigentcy. Quote them with a link to the page.