Technical documentation

ISCO-08 2641

Technical writer, Technical documentation manager, Information developer, Technical translator, Product content specialist

AI exposure55%

Headcount need, in FTE

Exposure range

Your current headcount

FTE

Need in 203084 FTE-17 FTE (-16%)

Need in 203567 FTE-33 FTE (-33%)

How AI is used on these tasks today

Automation 39%Augmentation 61%

In AI conversations about this job's tasks: the AI does the task itself (automation) or helps the person do it (augmentation).Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. Occupations: Technical Writers. AEI

1. Exposure 55%Average automation potential of the job's tasks. Range for this family: 46 to 64%.ILO occupations used: Authors and Related Writers (55%). ILO data

2. Strategic ceiling 100%Your call: how much of this potential do you want to capture? Nobody can set it for you.

3. Adoption speed midpoint 2030

Inherits your company stance, adjustable for this family.

4. Conversion to headcount sensitive 60%Default 60%: Documentation volume is driven by product ranges and regulations rather than writing capacity, so productivity gains largely reduce the need for writers.

Target AI skills

level 1 to 4

Foundation

Use AI assistants every day

Frame and phrase a request

Check and challenge AI outputs

Protect data and respect the rules

Applied

Rethink one's process with AI

Analyse data with AI

Produce content with AI

Delegate to and supervise AI agents

Expert

Evaluate and make AI solutions reliable

Job skills

Growing in value

Structured content and documentation architecture
Validating safety and regulatory content
Managing machine translation and terminology
Product data quality in reference systems
Designing documentation workflows with AI

Losing value

Writing standard installation and user manuals
Manual translation and proofreading
Updating documents after product changes
Manual layout of manuals

How the job will change

Technical documentation is one of the most exposed activities in an electrical equipment company. AI now drafts installation instructions, user manuals and release notes from engineering data, translates them into dozens of languages and updates them when a product changes. Much of the writing, translation and layout work that filled a technical writer's week is absorbed, and what remains is review and validation.

The job moves towards content architecture and control: organising structured content and product data so that AI produces reliable documents, validating safety warnings and regulatory statements, managing terminology across languages. A good technical writer tomorrow will design and supervise a documentation chain and answer for what reaches the installer, especially where a mistake can cause an electrical accident.

2026-2027: AI drafts and translates manuals, writers review and validate.
2028-2030: Documentation generated from product data, teams shrink and specialise.
2031+: A few content architects supervise automated documentation chains.

Watch out

An error in a safety instruction engages the manufacturer's liability. Shrinking the team before validation of AI-generated content is properly organised exposes the company to compliance and safety risks. See the seniority outlook below.

What if you hired fewer juniors?

Your 2036 seniors are the juniors you hire today.

Seniors available in 2036-5%2 FTE short

Gap above 5% from2036

Your seniority mix today

Juniors (0 to 3 yrs in the profession)25%Seniors (10+ yrs)30%

Mid-level (3 to 10 yrs in the profession, the remainder)45%

Cut in junior hiring -40%

For

Advanced settings

Juniors promoted each year25%Juniors leaving each year12%Senior gap filled by external hiring0%If every company makes the same bet, senior profiles will be scarce and expensive.

Seniority mix, % of today's headcount

Juniors25%Mid-level42%Seniors28%

2026 2036

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How the numbers are built

Every headcount figure combines four assumptions. Three come pre-filled from public research and job family defaults. The strategic ceiling is yours to set.

Public researchExposureAverage automation potential of the job's tasks, from the ILO's 2025 task-level scores.

Your decisionStrategic ceilingHow much of that potential you choose to capture. Your decision, not ours.

Your companyAdoption speedHow fast your company moves, set once for the whole company.

Job family defaultConversion to headcountHow much of the productivity gain becomes fewer people rather than more output.

Headcount effect

Seniority outlook

A flow model with three levels of experience in the profession. Promotion and exit rates are set so that today's mix stays stable when hiring does not change: any gap you see comes from the junior hiring cut alone.