Will AI replace Waiters and Waitresses?
Estimated risk score: 28 out of 100
Lower 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 (9 to 47).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 25 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 35-3031.00 · Food Preparation and Serving Related
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: 5 of its 25 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Write patrons' food orders on order slips, memorize orders, or enter orders into computers for transmittal to kitchen staff.
- Inform customers of daily specials.
- Prepare checks that itemize and total meal costs and sales taxes.
- Collect payments from customers.
- Explain how various menu items are prepared, describing ingredients and cooking methods.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 17 of its 25 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Bring wine selections to tables with appropriate glasses, and pour the wines for customers.
- Clean tables or counters after patrons have finished dining.
- Escort customers to their tables.
- Fill salt, pepper, sugar, cream, condiment, and napkin containers.
- Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping and mopping floors, vacuuming carpet, tidying up server station, taking out trash, or checking and cleaning bathroom.
- Perform food preparation duties, such as preparing salads, appetizers, and cold dishes, portioning desserts, and brewing coffee.
What the job is
Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.
Also called: Waiter, Waitress, Bar Waiter, Club Waiter, Bar Waitress, Deck Steward, Wine Steward, Buffet Waiter.
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