AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop?

Task-level automation exposure for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop: 20 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

41% weighted task index

20 of 20 tasks scored

Median Salary

$31,200 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Very High

432,690 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+3.4% employment change

107,100 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.

$20,450 – $47,070

Highest medians

Hawaii $47,070

Oregon $40,720

District of Columbia $37,570

Washington $37,270

Maine $36,800

Lowest medians

Guam $20,450

Mississippi $21,990

Louisiana $22,060

Puerto Rico $22,480

Wyoming $22,660

State figures come from the 35-9031 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 41%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 11%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 32%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 13%

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 8/100 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

20 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) 12%

3 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 49%

10 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 38%

7 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

#2296 · Core · 40% automatable

Provide guests with menus.

interpersonal — Menu presentation is live service interaction

Present food or beverage information or menus to customers.

#2297 · Core · 20% automatable

Greet guests and seat them at tables or in waiting areas.

interpersonal — Physical seating arrangement and hosting

Assist customers with seating arrangements.

#2302 · Core · 55% automatable

Maintain contact with kitchen staff, management, serving staff, and customers to ensure that dining details are handled properly and customers' concerns are addressed.

interpersonal — Order relay in live kitchen; AI can transcribe only

Communicate dining or order details to kitchen personnel.

#18749 · Core · 20% automatable

Assign patrons to tables suitable for their needs and according to rotation so that servers receive an appropriate number of seatings.

interpersonal — Physical seating arrangement and hosting

Assist customers with seating arrangements.

#18750 · Core · 50% automatable

Speak with patrons to ensure satisfaction with food and service, to respond to complaints, or to make conversation.

interpersonal — Satisfaction requires human relationship and accountability

Communicate with customers to resolve complaints or ensure satisfaction.

#18752 · Core · 22% automatable

Inspect dining and serving areas to ensure cleanliness and proper setup.

visual inspection — Physical conformance inspection of facilities/equipment

Inspect facilities, equipment or supplies to ensure conformance to standards.

#2307 · Core · 30% automatable

Supervise and coordinate activities of dining room staff to ensure that patrons receive prompt and courteous service.

interpersonal — Coordinating food service staff is live supervisory work

Coordinate activities of food service staff.

#18751 · Core · 55% automatable

Answer telephone calls and respond to inquiries or transfer calls.

information retrieval — General info answers assisted; live service human

Provide customers with general information or assistance.

#21070 · Core · 5% automatable

Assist other restaurant workers by serving food and beverages, or by bussing tables.

physical manipulation — Hands-on kitchen assistance

Assist chefs or caterers with food or drink preparation.

#18753 · Core · 22% automatable

Inspect restrooms for cleanliness and availability of supplies, and clean restrooms when necessary.

visual inspection — Physical conformance inspection of facilities/equipment

Inspect facilities, equipment or supplies to ensure conformance to standards.

#18754 · Core · 38% automatable

Take and prepare to-go orders.

interpersonal — Order taking automatable; customer rapport partly human

Package food or supplies. Take customer orders.

#2303 · Core · 48% automatable

Inform patrons of establishment specialties and features.

information retrieval — General info answers assisted; live service human

Present food or beverage information or menus to customers. Provide customers with general information or assistance.

#2301 · Core · 80% automatable

Receive and record patrons' dining reservations.

data analysis — AI books reservations via tools; human handles issues

Schedule dining reservations.

#2305 · Supplemental · 45% automatable

Operate cash registers to accept payments for food and beverages.

data analysis — Billing and payment processing largely automated

Operate cash registers. Process customer bills or payments.

#2304 · Supplemental · 55% automatable

Direct patrons to coatrooms and waiting areas, such as lounges.

information retrieval — General info answers assisted; live service human

Provide customers with general information or assistance.

#2306 · Supplemental · 82% automatable

Prepare cash receipts after establishments close, and make bank deposits.

data analysis — Record production data into structured logs

Record operational or production data.

#2309 · Supplemental · 75% automatable

Order or requisition supplies and equipment for tables and serving stations.

decision support — Ordering via systems automatable; human approves spend

Order materials, supplies, or equipment.

#2310 · Supplemental · 38% automatable

Hire, train, and supervise food and beverage service staff.

decision support — Broad HR work needs human judgment and accountability

Train food preparation or food service personnel. Perform human resources activities.

#2312 · Supplemental · 55% automatable

Confer with other staff to help plan establishments' menus.

text generation — Menu drafts aided; cost and kitchen constraints human

Plan menu options.

#2313 · Supplemental · 28% automatable

Perform marketing and advertising services.

interpersonal — Food service management is live operational leadership

Manage food service operations or parts of operations.

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Community Sentiment

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Method

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

See the full method →

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