Will AI replace Crematory Operators?
Estimated risk score: 21 out of 100
Very low replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (2 to 40).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 12 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 39-4012.00 · Personal Care and Service
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 2 of its 12 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Read documentation to confirm the identity of the deceased.
- Document divided remains to ensure parts are not misplaced.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 10 of its 12 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Clean the crematorium, including tables, floors, and equipment.
- Embalm, dress, or otherwise prepare the deceased for viewing.
- Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.
- Pick up and handle human or pet remains in a respectful manner.
- Place corpses into crematory machines to reduce remains to bone fragments using flame, heat, or alkaline hydrolysis.
- Pulverize remaining bone fragments into smaller pieces, using specialized equipment, such as a cremulator or grinder.
What the job is
Operate crematory equipment to reduce human or animal remains to bone fragments in accordance with state and local regulations. Duties may include preparing the body for cremation and performing general maintenance on crematory equipment. May use traditional flame-based cremation, calcination, or alkaline hydrolysis.
Also called: Cremator, Cremation Arranger, Pet Crematory Operator.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate