Greet customers, patrons, or visitors.
Little of this can be handed to software today.
The documentation around care is highly automatable and that is where the time goes back. The care itself needs physical presence and someone accountable for the outcome, so this work stays where it is.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Direct care and assistance |
| Jobs that do it | 21 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Vertical agents |
| O*NET activity | Assisting and Caring for Others (4.A.4.a.5) |
What could do this work.
These are the categories of tool that address direct care and assistance, with a few live examples from our landscape. We name the category rather than promise that a specific product does your specific task, because that promise would not be true.
Vertical agents
Categories are matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Before committing to any of them, check that the tool can reach the system your record actually lives in. That connection, not the model, is where most of these projects stall.
Who does this work.
21 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Baggage Porters and Bellhops
- Cashiers
- Counter and Rental Clerks
- Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
- Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
- First-Line Supervisors of Gambling Services Workers
- First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers
- Funeral Attendants
- Gambling Dealers
- Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks
- Medical Assistants
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Pharmacy Aides
- Receptionists and Information Clerks
- Recreation Workers
- Retail Salespersons
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
- Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs
- Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- Tour Guides and Escorts
- Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Provide general assistance to others, such as customers, patrons, or motorists”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.