Job Check
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Operate telephone business systems equipment or switchboards to relay incoming, outgoing, and interoffice calls. May supply information to callers and record messages.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Operate communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.AI could speed this up a lot
- 02Answer incoming calls, greeting callers, providing information, transferring calls or taking messages as necessary.People already use AI for this at work
- 03Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.Mostly human for now
- 04Monitor emergency and code alarms, make emergency announcements, or route emergency calls to the appropriate location.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Record messages, suggesting rewording for clarity or conciseness.People already use AI for this at work
- 06Page individuals to inform them of telephone calls, using paging or interoffice communication equipment.AI could speed this up a lot
- 07Relay or route written or verbal messages.AI could speed this up a lot
- 08Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.Mostly human for now
- 09Place telephone calls or arrange conference calls as instructed.AI could speed this up a lot
- 10Process incoming or outgoing mail, packages, or deliveries.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 loss39%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
63%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 87% 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 39% 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.
- Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.
- Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.
- Process incoming or outgoing mail, packages, or deliveries.