Conveyor Operators and Tenders
In short: today's best AI models could do about 9% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 91% of the time, stays with people.
Control or tend conveyors or conveyor systems that move materials or products to and from stockpiles, processing stations, departments, or vehicles. May control speed and routing of materials or products.
22,930 people do this job in the US. $42,420 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on4 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people36 h
Conveyor Operators and Tenders, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 4 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 36 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Record production data such as weights, types, quantities, and storage locations of materials, as well as equipment performance problems and downtime (about 2 h); Read production and delivery schedules, and confer with supervisors, to determine sorting and transfer procedures, arrangement of packages on pallets, and destinations of loaded pallets (about 1 h); Contact workers in work stations or other departments to request movement of materials, products, or machinery, or to notify them of incoming shipments and their estimated delivery times (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 9%
- 0%
- 91%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 9%. Today's estimate: 9%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 23 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.019% to 0.0056% (released February and March 2025); 0.025% to 0.0077% (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.019% | 454 of 708 | 3 of 23 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.0056% | 567 of 703 | 1 of 23 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.025% | 342 of 655 | 2 of 23 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.0059% | 556 of 672 | 1 of 23 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.0077% | 529 of 677 | 1 of 23 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 23 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 23 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 84% of this job's working time as physical work. For 75% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 20% in a purpose-built cell, 56% in a structured facility. 1.31 of 3, the 43rd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 16%
- No robot shown 9%
- In a purpose-built cell 20%
- In a structured facility 56%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 23 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean, sterilize, and maintain equipment, machinery, and work stations, using hand tools, shovels, brooms, chemicals, hoses, and lubricants.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Foamico automated conveyor belt cleaning system (automatic mainstations/satellites) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Load, unload, or adjust materials or products on conveyors by hand, by using lifts, hoists, and scoops, or by opening gates, chutes, or hoppers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Stretch (Boston Dynamics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Operate elevator systems in conjunction with conveyor systems.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Observe conveyor operations and monitor lights, dials, and gauges to maintain specified operating levels and to detect equipment malfunctions.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, ANYmal (ANYbotics) at Vale Caue plant (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Observe packages moving along conveyors to identify packages, detect defective packaging, and perform quality control.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Project P.I. (imaging tunnels) (Amazon) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 17 min7 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Repair or replace equipment components or parts such as blades, rolls, and pumps.Done more than monthly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Spidler (Sandpit Innovation / Lewis Australia) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Stop equipment or machinery and clear jams, using poles, bars, and hand tools, or remove damaged materials from conveyors.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Move, assemble, and connect hoses or nozzles to material hoppers, storage tanks, conveyor sections or chutes, and pumps.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Robofuel autonomous refuelling (Scott Automation) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Record production data such as weights, types, quantities, and storage locations of materials, as well as equipment performance problems and downtime.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 29 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Position deflector bars, gates, chutes, or spouts to divert flow of materials from one conveyor onto another conveyor.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Honeywell Intelligrated IntelliSort sliding shoe sorter (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Join sections of conveyor frames at temporary working areas, and connect power units.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZEMAN SBA (Steel Beam Assembler) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate consoles to control automatic palletizing equipment.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min7 min to 50 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders20% now, 20% by 2028
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators1% now, 1% by 2028
- Hoist and Winch Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics13% now, 13% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Conveyor Operators and Tenders is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 9% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 9% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Conveyor Operators and Tenders come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Record production data such as weights, types, quantities, and storage locations of materials, as well as equipment performance problems and downtime (100% of the task's time now); Read production and delivery schedules, and confer with supervisors, to determine sorting and transfer procedures, arrangement of packages on pallets, and destinations of loaded pallets (100% of the task's time now); and Contact workers in work stations or other departments to request movement of materials, products, or machinery, or to notify them of incoming shipments and their estimated delivery times (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Conveyor Operators and Tenders stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Clean, sterilize, and maintain equipment, machinery, and work stations, using hand tools, shovels, brooms, chemicals, hoses, and lubricants; Load, unload, or adjust materials or products on conveyors by hand, by using lifts, hoists, and scoops, or by opening gates, chutes, or hoppers; and Operate elevator systems in conjunction with conveyor systems. Together such tasks are about 91% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Conveyor Operators and Tenders?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Conveyor Operators and Tenders?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 84% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 75% of the working time, 56% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.31 of 3. One example: Stretch (Boston Dynamics) for "load, unload, or adjust materials or products on conveyors by hand, by using lifts, hoists, and scoops, or by opening gates, chutes, or hoppers". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 23 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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