Job Check
Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
Prepare and cook large quantities of food for institutions, such as schools, hospitals, or cafeterias.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Monitor and record food temperatures to ensure food safety.Mostly human for now
- 02Cook foodstuffs according to menus, special dietary or nutritional restrictions, or numbers of portions to be served.Mostly human for now
- 03Rotate and store food supplies.Mostly human for now
- 04Wash pots, pans, dishes, utensils, or other cooking equipment.Mostly human for now
- 05Apportion and serve food to facility residents, employees, or patrons.Mostly human for now
- 06Clean and inspect galley equipment, kitchen appliances, and work areas to ensure cleanliness and functional operation.Mostly human for now
- 07Clean, cut, and cook meat, fish, or poultry.Mostly human for now
- 08Direct activities of one or more workers who assist in preparing and serving meals.Mostly human for now
- 09Train new employees.Mostly human for now
- 10Take inventory of supplies and equipment.Mostly human for now
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
12%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 19% 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 79% 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.
- Monitor and record food temperatures to ensure food safety.
- Cook foodstuffs according to menus, special dietary or nutritional restrictions, or numbers of portions to be served.
- Rotate and store food supplies.