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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders?
Task-level automation exposure for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders: 17 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
23%
weighted task index
17 of 17 tasks scored
Median Salary
$41,590 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Medium
31,250 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
-0.3%
employment change
3,700 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 42 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$25,480 – $51,100
Highest medians
Washington $51,100
Utah $48,620
Massachusetts $47,960
Iowa $47,900
Michigan $47,260
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $25,480
Alabama $27,080
Mississippi $31,150
Delaware $31,240
Texas $33,980
State figures come from the 51-3093 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 23%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 75%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 0%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 6%
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 24/100
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
17 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) 13%
2 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 6%
1 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 82%
14 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
#4949 · Core · 5% automatable
Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
physical manipulation — Hands-on cleaning of work areas
Clean work areas. Sterilize food cooking or processing equipment.
#4948 · Core · 73% automatable
Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
information retrieval — Parse specs and materials from orders
Read work orders or other instructions to determine product specifications or materials requirements. Review blueprints or other instructions to determine operational methods or sequences.
#4947 · Core · 23% automatable
Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
visual inspection — Instrument monitoring needs physical sensor presence
Monitor instruments to ensure proper production conditions. Adjust equipment controls to regulate flow of production materials or products.
#4952 · Core · 25% automatable
Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
physical manipulation — Physical measuring and dispensing of ingredients
Measure ingredients or substances to be used in production processes.
#4951 · Core · 10% automatable
Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
physical manipulation — Hands-on cooking with heat and perishable materials
Operate cooking, baking, or other food preparation equipment.
#4944 · Core · 82% automatable
Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
data analysis — Record production data into structured logs
Record operational or production data.
#4950 · Core · 17% automatable
Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
physical manipulation — Manual temperature control adjustment
Adjust temperature controls of ovens or other heating equipment. Operate pumping systems or equipment.
#4954 · Core · 6% automatable
Remove cooked material or products from equipment.
physical manipulation — Physically extracting parts from production equipment
Remove products or workpieces from production equipment.
#4946 · Core · 14% automatable
Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
visual inspection — Food product inspection is sensory and hands-on
Inspect food products. Collect samples of materials or products for testing.
#4958 · Core · 7% automatable
Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.
physical manipulation — Rigging and lifting loads with cranes is hands-on
Load materials into production equipment. Lift materials or workpieces using cranes or other lifting equipment.
#4945 · Core · 38% automatable
Listen for malfunction alarms, and shut down equipment and notify supervisors when necessary.
text generation — Notifying maintenance needs is routine messaging
Watch operating equipment to detect malfunctions. Operate cooking, baking, or other food preparation equipment. Notify others of equipment repair or maintenance needs.
#4955 · Core · 8% automatable
Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete.
physical manipulation — Embodied signaling in shared physical workspace
Signal others to coordinate work activities.
#4956 · Core · 15% automatable
Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.
physical manipulation — Hands-on production flow control
Adjust equipment controls to regulate flow of production materials or products.
#4953 · Core · 15% automatable
Admit required amounts of water, steam, cooking oils, or compressed air into equipment, such as by opening water valves to cool mixtures to the desired consistency.
physical manipulation — Physical valve/control manipulation for coolant
Adjust equipment controls to regulate coolant flow.
#4959 · Supplemental · 15% automatable
Activate agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients, stopping machines when ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
physical manipulation — Hands-on operation of mixing machinery
Operate mixing equipment.
#4960 · Supplemental · 12% automatable
Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.
physical manipulation — Grinding requires hands-on control and feel
Operate grinding equipment.
#4957 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Place products on conveyors or carts, and monitor product flow.
physical manipulation — Physical moving of products between work areas
Move products, materials, or equipment between work 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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