Can Agents Work?

Jobs / Science and research / 19-3022.00

Survey Researchers

Plan, develop, or conduct surveys. May analyze and interpret the meaning of survey data, determine survey objectives, or suggest or test question wording. Includes social scientists who primarily design questionnaires or supervise survey teams.

US jobs
8,290
Median wage
$69,460 a year
Job family
Science and research

Can agents do the work of survey researchers?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Science and research:

  • Task levelPartialThin evidence. CORE-Bench asks agents to reproduce the results of published papers in computer science, social science, and medicine from the authors' code and data. Princeton's HAL team declared it solved in December 2025: Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.5 scored 95.5% after manual regrading. No benchmark in our collection tests new experiments or lab work.
  • Project levelNot yetThin evidence. On PaperBench, where agents replicate machine learning papers from scratch, the best official result is 26.0% (o1, April 2025). On a small subset, ML PhDs scored 41.4% against o1's 26.6%. No newer official results exist, and no benchmark tests research projects in other sciences.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in science and research, not always this occupation's tasks.

  • CORE-Benchby Princeton UniversityTask level · CORE-Bench-Hard accuracy (public test set)
    95.5%Claude Code + Claude Opus 4.5 (after manual regrading) · 3 Dec 2025
    Solved
  • PaperBenchby OpenAIProject level · Average replication score
    26%IterativeAgent o1-high (36h limit) · 2 Apr 2025
    Emerging

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Conduct surveys and collect data, using methods such as interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, market analysis surveys, public opinion polls, literature reviews, and file reviews.
  • Prepare and present summaries and analyses of survey data, including tables, graphs, and fact sheets that describe survey techniques and results.
  • Consult with clients to identify survey needs and specific requirements, such as special samples.
  • Determine and specify details of survey projects, including sources of information, procedures to be used, and the design of survey instruments and materials.
  • Support, plan, and coordinate operations for single or multiple surveys.
  • Monitor and evaluate survey progress and performance, using sample disposition reports and response rate calculations.
  • Collaborate with other researchers in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of surveys.
  • Conduct research to gather information about survey topics.
  • Direct and review the work of staff members, including survey support staff and interviewers who gather survey data.
  • Direct updates and changes in survey implementation and methods.
  • Produce documentation of the questionnaire development process, data collection methods, sampling designs, and decisions related to sample statistical weighting.
  • Write proposals to win new projects.
Other job titles for this occupation (34)

Data Analyst · Market Survey Representative · Research Associate · Research Fellow · Research Interviewer · Research Scientist · Survey Methodologist · Survey Researcher · Survey Statistician · Telephone Interviewer · Analytic Methodologist · Bilingual Field Interviewer · Data Collection Specialist · Data Collector · Evaluation Analyst · Field Collector · Field Data Collector · Field Interviewer · Field Representative · Interviewer · Pollster · Proctor · Research Coordinator · Research Specialist · Researcher · Retail Data Collector · Screening Field Interviewer · Survey Analyst · Survey Associate · Survey Interviewer · Survey Questionnaire Designer · Survey Research Analyst · Survey Research Associate · Telephone Survey Interviewer