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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance?
Task-level automation exposure for Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance: 12 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
62%
weighted task index
12 of 12 tasks scored
Median Salary
$50,340 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
High
202,810 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
-0.7%
employment change
16,000 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 54 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$24,750 – $72,260
Highest medians
District of Columbia $72,260
Washington $59,330
Minnesota $59,220
North Dakota $57,580
Illinois $57,240
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $24,750
Virgin Islands $33,870
Guam $39,630
South Dakota $43,920
New Mexico $43,960
State figures come from the 43-5032 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 62%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 7%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 27%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 18%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 19/100
Low
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
12 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 63%
7 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 30%
4 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 7%
1 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Constituent Tasks
#2723 · Core · 72% automatable
Schedule or dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles to appropriate locations, according to customer requests, specifications, or needs, using radios or telephones.
decision support — Algorithmic scheduling with human oversight of constraints
Schedule operational activities.
#2727 · Core · 75% automatable
Prepare daily work and run schedules.
decision support — Draft schedules; human owns fairness and coverage
Prepare employee work schedules.
#2726 · Core · 55% automatable
Confer with customers or supervising personnel to address questions, problems, or requests for service or equipment.
interpersonal — Drafting responses easy; live de-escalation is human
Respond to customer problems or complaints.
#2725 · Core · 60% automatable
Relay work orders, messages, or information to or from work crews, supervisors, or field inspectors, using telephones or two-way radios.
interpersonal — Relaying information needs real-time human channel
Relay information between personnel.
#2728 · Core · 68% automatable
Receive or prepare work orders.
text generation — Compliance docs drafted; human owns regulatory accuracy
Prepare documentation for contracts, transactions, or regulatory compliance.
#2731 · Core · 80% automatable
Record and maintain files or records of customer requests, work or services performed, charges, expenses, inventory, or other dispatch information.
data analysis — Maintain operational records in structured systems
Maintain operational records.
#2724 · Core · 45% automatable
Arrange for necessary repairs to restore service and schedules.
interpersonal — Operational coordination requires live human orchestration
Coordinate operational activities.
#2730 · Core · 60% automatable
Monitor personnel or equipment locations and utilization to coordinate service and schedules.
information retrieval — Tracking via systems is digital; physical reconciliation needs humans
Track goods or materials.
#2732 · Core · 55% automatable
Determine types or amounts of equipment, vehicles, materials, or personnel required, according to work orders or specifications.
decision support — Resource selection needs situational judgment
Select resources needed to accomplish tasks.
#2733 · Core · 72% automatable
Advise personnel about traffic problems, such as construction areas, accidents, congestion, weather conditions, or other hazards.
text generation — Providing routine information to coworkers is text-based
Provide information to coworkers.
#2729 · Supplemental · 30% automatable
Oversee all communications within specifically assigned territories.
physical manipulation — Operating comms hardware needs hands-on setup and tuning
Operate communications equipment or systems.
#2735 · Supplemental · 52% automatable
Order supplies or equipment and issue them to personnel.
decision support — Ordering via systems automatable; human approves spend
Distribute materials to employees or customers. Order materials, supplies, or equipment.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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