Job Check
Barbers
Provide barbering services, such as cutting, trimming, shampooing, and styling hair; trimming beards; or giving shaves.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Clean and sterilize scissors, combs, clippers, and other instruments.Mostly human for now
- 02Cut and trim hair according to clients' instructions or current hairstyles, using clippers, combs, hand-held blow driers, and scissors.Mostly human for now
- 03Question patrons regarding desired services and haircut styles.Mostly human for now
- 04Clean work stations and sweep floors.Mostly human for now
- 05Drape and pin protective cloths around customers' shoulders.Mostly human for now
- 06Apply lather and shave beards or neck and temple hair contours, using razors.Mostly human for now
- 07Record services provided on cashiers' tickets or receive payment from customers.Mostly human for now
- 08Shape and trim beards and moustaches, using scissors.Mostly human for now
- 09Perform clerical and administrative duties such as keeping records, paying bills, and hiring and supervising personnel.AI could speed this up a lot
- 10Keep card files on clientele, recording notes of work done, products used and fees charged after each visit.AI could speed this up a lot
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
16%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 29% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 47% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Clean and sterilize scissors, combs, clippers, and other instruments.
- Cut and trim hair according to clients' instructions or current hairstyles, using clippers, combs, hand-held blow driers, and scissors.
- Question patrons regarding desired services and haircut styles.