Mostly Resilient
Last Update: 8/30/2026
AI Resilience Score for Highway Maint. Workers:
50.3%
Median Score
Meaningful human contribution
Measures the parts of the occupation that still require a human touch. This score averages data from up to four AI exposure datasets, focusing on the role’s resilience against automation.
High
Long-term employer demand
Predicts the health of the job market for this role through 2034. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it balances projected annual job openings (60%) with overall employment growth (40%).
Med
Sustained economic opportunity
Measures future earning potential and career flexibility. This score is a blend of total projected labor income (67%) and the role’s inherent ability to adapt to economic and technological shifts (33%).
Low
This reflects the reliability of your score based on the number of data sources available for this career and how closely those sources agree on the outlook. A higher confidence means more consistent evidence from labor experts and AI models.
There are a reasonable number of sources for this result, but there is some disagreement between them.
Contributing sources
AI Resilience Report forHighway Maintenance Workers
$50,260 median salary•11,800 annual openings•SOC Code: 47-4051.00
Highway Maintenance Workers are somewhat more resilient to AI impacts than most occupations, according to our analysis of 6 sources.
Highway maintenance work is labeled "Mostly Resilient" because so much of the job involves physical, unpredictable, hands-on tasks (like patching washouts, clearing debris, and operating heavy equipment) that are genuinely difficult for AI or robots to handle reliably at scale. AI is stepping in mostly as a helper, spotting potholes through cameras, predicting which roads need repairs, and handling paperwork and scheduling, rather than replacing the crews doing the actual work on the ground.
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Highway maintenance work is labeled "Mostly Resilient" because so much of the job involves physical, unpredictable, hands-on tasks (like patching washouts, clearing debris, and operating heavy equipment) that are genuinely difficult for AI or robots to handle reliably at scale. AI is stepping in mostly as a helper, spotting potholes through cameras, predicting which roads need repairs, and handling paperwork and scheduling, rather than replacing the crews doing the actual work on the ground.
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View analysisChat with CoachLatest newsMore career infoAnalysisChatNewsMoreAnalysis of Current AI Resilience
Highway Maint. Workers
Updated Quarterly
How is AI changing Highway Maint. Workers jobs?
If you're worried AI is going to eliminate highway maintenance jobs overnight — take a deep breath. Right now, most AI in this field is augmenting workers (giving them better tools) rather than replacing them. In an August 2026 podcast, Traffic Management Inc.
CEO Jonathan Spano explained that AI is currently being used primarily to improve office operations — including traffic planning, estimating, scheduling, permitting, documentation and dispatching — rather than replacing field workers.
On the road itself, AI is starting to help crews spot problems faster. Memphis, Tennessee collects video footage from cameras mounted on city trucks and uses an AI model to process the video and detect potholes; by the time the initiative formally launched in 2025, the city had already used the tech to find and repair 1,700 potholes since 2022. A UK company called Robotiz3d has even deployed autonomous crack-sealing robots on real roads [1], though large-scale U.S. use is still years away.
State agencies are also using AI to sort through mountains of data — Connecticut DOT built a "DOT bot" chatbot [2] that helps staff quickly search agency documentation, and Texas DOT uses AI agents to combine crash, pavement, and maintenance records in seconds instead of hours [2]. And in one of the biggest safety wins, Colorado DOT is deploying self-driving truck-mounted attenuators — crash trucks designed to absorb impacts so crews don't have to sit inside them — with chief of innovative mobility Kay Kelly saying, "These vehicles are designed to get hit so people don't have to."
Sources
How fast is AI adoption growing for Highway Maint. Workers?
Adoption will likely be steady but slow, and that's actually good news for workers. Physical tasks like shoveling debris, patching washouts, or clearing mudslides are messy, unpredictable, and hard to automate. As ASCE's Civil Engineering magazine reported in January 2026, a lot of human labor is still involved in road assessments, though AI offers potential to assess roads in real time and predict which parts need to be prioritized for repair.
Cost is another brake — Colorado's autonomous crash-truck program started with just three vehicles in Limon, Pueblo and southwest Colorado, focused on striping projects, with plans to expand to mowing, pothole patching and sweeping over time. On the flip side, tight public-works budgets and worker-safety concerns push agencies toward AI where it clearly helps — Slashdot's coverage highlighted that removing humans from crash-cushion trucks is one of the clearest cases where AI protects lives [3]. The bottom line: skills like heavy-equipment operation, judgment in unpredictable conditions, and hands-on repair still matter a lot.
As Spano put it, human expertise remains the industry's most valuable asset — AI is becoming your future co-worker, not your replacement.
Sources
Will AI replace Highway Maint. Workers?
No. We don't think AI will replace Highway Maintenance Workers, though we do expect the job to change.
Our 50.3% AI Resilience Score reflects a career that is holding up reasonably well, and the physical reality of the work explains a lot of that. Patching washouts, clearing debris, and operating heavy equipment in unpredictable conditions are genuinely hard to automate. AI is making inroads, but mostly as a helper. Memphis used an AI model to detect potholes from truck-mounted cameras, and autonomous crack-sealing robots have been tested on real roads [1], but large-scale adoption in the U.S. is still years out.
Where AI is moving faster is in back-office and safety applications. State DOTs are using AI to combine crash, pavement, and maintenance records in seconds [2], and Colorado is deploying self-driving crash-cushion trucks so workers no longer have to sit in vehicles designed to get hit [3]. That last example is a genuine win for workers, not a threat to them.
The economic picture is more mixed. Employer demand looks moderate through 2034, but wage growth and career flexibility are areas to watch. The smart move is to get comfortable with the digital tools coming into the field, because the workers who thrive will be the ones who pair hands-on skill with tech fluency.
Sources
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Latest AI news for Highway Maint. Workers
These articles highlight how AI is reshaping careers in highway maintenance without replacing workers. For instance, AI is used to monitor road conditions more frequently, allowing crews to prioritize repairs effectively. Additionally, insights from a road worker receiving an AI warning illustrate how technology can enhance accountability and efficiency in the field. Embracing AI can lead to smarter, safer work environments, providing highway maintenance workers with tools to adapt and thrive in their roles. Keeping informed about these advancements fosters resilience in this evolving career path.
Will AI Replace Highway Maintenance Workers? Risk Score
www.aiexposure.org • 9/20/2026
Highway Maintenance Workers have an AI automation risk score of 57/100. Learn about risk factors, safe tasks, transition paths, and what highway maintenance ...
Richardson County road worker receives warning from AI ...
www.facebook.com • 9/20/2026
A Richardson County road worker was given a warning from an AI system after his motor grader didn't move for two days.
Will AI replace highway maintenance workers?
www.careerexplorer.com • 9/20/2026
Sep 7, 2026 — AI won't replace highway maintenance workers, but it's changing how crews are dispatched and how repairs get prioritized. Automated inspection ... Read more
AI paves the way for better road maintenance
cee.engineering.cmu.edu • 9/20/2026
Jul 17, 2025 — When installed in a standard vehicle, the app collects road imagery, which AI models then analyze to assess current pavement conditions and ... Read more
Transforming road maintenance with AI: smarter, safer and ...
digital.aecom.com • 9/20/2026
By using technology like sensors, GPS and AI-based analysis, governments can monitor road conditions more frequently and prioritize repairs. Chicago, for ... Read more
More Career Info
Career: Highway Maintenance Workers
They keep roads safe and smooth by fixing potholes, clearing debris, and painting road lines.
Parent Careers
Employment & Wage Data
Median Wage
$50,260
Jobs (2025)
161,800
Growth (2025-35)
+3.4%
Annual Openings
11,800
Education
High school diploma or equivalent
Experience
None
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025-2035
Task-Level AI Resilience Scores
AI-generated estimates of task resilience over the next 3 years
1
Flag motorists to warn them of obstacles or repair work ahead.
2
Erect, install, or repair guardrails, road shoulders, berms, highway markers, warning signals, and highway lighting, using hand tools and power tools.
3
Dump, spread, and tamp asphalt, using pneumatic tampers, to repair joints and patch broken pavement.
4
Perform roadside landscaping work, such as clearing weeds and brush, and planting and trimming trees.
5
Set out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic.
6
Clean and clear debris from culverts, catch basins, drop inlets, ditches, and other drain structures.
7
Haul and spread sand, gravel, and clay to fill washouts and repair road shoulders.
Tasks are ranked by their AI resilience, with the most resilient tasks shown first. Core tasks are essential functions of this occupation, while supplemental tasks provide additional context.
