Are Infantry Unit Leaders at Risk Due to AI?

Direct, train, and lead infantry units in ground combat operations. Duties include directing deployment of infantry weapons, vehicles, and equipment; directing location, construction, and camouflage of infantry positions and equipment; managing field communications operations; coordinating with armor, artillery, and air support units; performing strategic and tactical planning, including battle plan development; and leading basic reconnaissance operations.

The occupation "Infantry Officers" (slug "infantry-officers") is assigned a base automation risk of 0.0%. This extremely low probability indicates that current AI and robotic technologies are highly unlikely to automate this role in the foreseeable future. Infantry Officers work in dynamic, complex, and often hostile environments where unpredictability is the norm. The occupation requires real-time judgment, moral reasoning, and adaptation to rapidly changing situations—skills that remain far beyond the reach of existing automation. The evaluation of automation risk considers not only the tasks performed but also the context in which those tasks occur, and for Infantry Officers, the context is simply too variable and human-centric. When assessing the most automatable tasks within the Infantry Officers occupation, even the top candidates are only marginally suited to automation. These might include basic administrative record-keeping, scheduling training exercises, or relaying standard communications. Although these tasks are somewhat routine and could, in theory, be supported by AI or digital tools, they represent a small fraction of an Officer’s duties and are typically embedded within broader decision-making and leadership functions. Given the inherently unpredictable and adversarial nature of military settings, even seemingly simple tasks rarely occur in isolation or under controlled circumstances amenable to full automation. Conversely, the most resistant tasks for Infantry Officers are fundamentally human. The top three include tactical decision-making under fire, leading and motivating soldiers in high-stress environments, and responding to the moral and ethical dimensions of combat. These tasks require situational awareness, emotional intelligence, and ethical judgment, all of which are recognized bottleneck skills at advanced levels. Skills like critical thinking, leadership, and complex problem-solving are central and cannot be reliably replicated by machines. Furthermore, the ability to inspire trust, provide mentorship, and maintain morale depends on interpersonal connections and cultural understanding—areas where AI currently falls short. As a result, the job's essential requirements create insurmountable technological barriers, thereby justifying the 0.0% automation risk.