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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Fast Food and Counter Workers?
Task-level automation exposure for Fast Food and Counter Workers: 27 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
25%
weighted task index
27 of 27 tasks scored
Median Salary
$31,200 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Very High
3,854,050 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+5.8%
employment change
827,400 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.
$20,770 – $42,280
Highest medians
California $42,280
Washington $37,710
District of Columbia $37,430
Colorado $36,270
Vermont $36,030
Lowest medians
Guam $20,770
Puerto Rico $22,030
Mississippi $22,610
Louisiana $22,800
Oklahoma $23,430
State figures come from the 35-3023 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 25%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 69%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 10%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 12%
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 1/100
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
27 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) 16%
4 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 12%
3 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 72%
20 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 →Emerging & rewritten tasks
Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.
- New 08/2025 · Incumbent
Check and monitor food temperatures while cooking.
Constituent Tasks
#23100 · Core · 70% automatable
Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary.
data analysis — Billing and payment processing largely automated
Process customer bills or payments.
#23110 · Core · 4% automatable
Serve customers in eating places that specialize in fast service and inexpensive carry-out food.
physical manipulation — Carrying and serving food by hand
Serve food or beverages.
#23104 · Core · 53% automatable
Request and record customer orders, and compute bills, using cash registers, multi-counting machines, or pencil and paper.
data analysis — Billing and payment processing largely automated
Operate cash registers. Process customer bills or payments. Take customer orders.
#23103 · Core · 80% automatable
Balance receipts and payments in cash registers.
data analysis — Balancing receipts is arithmetic, human handles discrepancies
Balance receipts.
#23099 · Core · 50% automatable
Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints.
interpersonal — Satisfaction requires human relationship and accountability
Communicate with customers to resolve complaints or ensure satisfaction.
#23105 · Core · 4% automatable
Serve food, beverages, or desserts to customers in such settings as take-out counters of restaurants or lunchrooms, business or industrial establishments, hotel rooms, and cars.
physical manipulation — Carrying and serving food by hand
Serve food or beverages.
#23108 · Core · 75% automatable
Monitor and order supplies or food items, and restock as necessary to maintain inventory.
decision support — Ordering via systems automatable; human approves spend
Order materials, supplies, or equipment.
#23102 · Core · 10% automatable
Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping, mopping, and washing dishes, to keep equipment and facilities sanitary.
physical manipulation — Food area cleaning requires physical labor
Clean food preparation areas, facilities, or equipment.
#23109 · Core · 8% automatable
Brew coffee and tea, and fill containers with requested beverages.
physical manipulation — Hands-on beverage prep in unpredictable kitchen space
Prepare hot or cold beverages.
#23107 · Core · 8% automatable
Clean and organize eating, service, and kitchen areas.
physical manipulation — Food area cleaning requires physical labor
Clean food preparation areas, facilities, or equipment. Clean food service areas.
#23106 · Core · 6% automatable
Prepare daily food items, and cook simple foods and beverages, such as sandwiches, salads, soups, pizza, or coffee, using proper safety precautions and sanitary measures.
physical manipulation — Cooking requires hands-on manipulation of real food
Cook foods.
#23115 · Core · 6% automatable
Prepare and serve cold drinks, frozen milk drinks, or desserts, using drink-dispensing, milkshake, or frozen-custard machines.
physical manipulation — Hands-on beverage prep in unpredictable kitchen space
Serve food or beverages. Prepare hot or cold beverages.
#23113 · Core · 5% automatable
Wrap menu items such as sandwiches, hot entrees, and desserts for serving or for takeout.
physical manipulation — Hands-on packing of varied goods
Package food or supplies.
#23121 · Core · 5% automatable
Set up dining areas for meals, and clear them following meals.
physical manipulation — Physically arranging tables and furniture
Arrange tables or dining areas. Collect dirty dishes or other tableware.
#23111 · Core · 5% automatable
Collect and return dirty dishes to the kitchen for washing.
physical manipulation — Collecting dishes requires hands-on bussing
Collect dirty dishes or other tableware.
#23101 · Core · 9% automatable
Scrub and polish counters, steam tables, and other equipment, and clean glasses, dishes, and fountain equipment.
physical manipulation — Food area cleaning requires physical labor
Clean food preparation areas, facilities, or equipment. Clean tableware.
#23123 · Core · 30% automatable
Deliver orders to kitchens, and pick up and serve food when it is ready.
interpersonal — Order relay in live kitchen; AI can transcribe only
Serve food or beverages. Communicate dining or order details to kitchen personnel.
#23118 · Supplemental · 30% automatable
Perform personnel activities, such as supervising and training employees.
physical manipulation — Food prep training is hands-on demonstration
Train food preparation or food service personnel.
#23122 · Supplemental · 5% automatable
Add relishes and garnishes to food orders, according to instructions.
physical manipulation — Manual garnish placement
Add garnishes to food.
#23120 · Supplemental · 9% automatable
Distribute food to servers.
physical manipulation — Hands-on moving of supplies to locations
Move equipment, supplies or food to required locations.
#23116 · Supplemental · 7% automatable
Select food items from serving or storage areas and place them in dishes, on serving trays, or in take-out bags.
physical manipulation — Plating food is fine manual dexterity
Arrange food for serving.
#23114 · Supplemental · 55% automatable
Notify kitchen personnel of shortages or special orders.
interpersonal — Order relay in live kitchen; AI can transcribe only
Communicate dining or order details to kitchen personnel.
#23119 · Supplemental · 70% automatable
Take customers' orders and write ordered items on tickets, giving ticket stubs to customers when needed to identify filled orders.
interpersonal — Order taking automatable; customer rapport partly human
Take customer orders.
#23125 · Supplemental · 15% automatable
Plan, prepare, and deliver meals to individuals with special dietary needs.
physical manipulation — Managing special meal prep is hands-on kitchen work
Deliver items. Prepare foods or meals. Manage preparation of special meals or diets.
#23117 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Replenish foods at serving stations.
physical manipulation — Physically stocking serving stations and dining areas
Stock serving stations or dining areas with food or supplies.
#23112 · Supplemental · 7% automatable
Wash dishes, glassware, and silverware after meals.
physical manipulation — Hands-on dishwashing of physical tableware
Clean tableware.
#23124 · Supplemental · 5% automatable
Arrange tables and decorations according to instructions.
physical manipulation — Physically arranging tables and furniture
Arrange tables or dining areas.
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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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