Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
In short: today's best AI models could do about 48% 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 73% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 16% of the time, stays with people.
Teach languages and literature courses in languages other than English. Includes teachers of American Sign Language (ASL). Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
19,830 people do this job in the US. $79,350 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on19 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet15 h
- Stays with people6 h
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 19 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 15 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 6 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head (about 3 h); Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts (about 3 h); Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as how to speak and write a foreign language and the cultural aspects of areas where a particular language is used (about 3 h).
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.
- 84%
- 6%
- 9%
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, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 16%. Today's estimate: 49%.
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, 0.0082% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 423rd largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 5 of its 24 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.42% to 0.38% (released February and March 2025); 0.82% to 0.51% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.0074% to 0.0082% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.42% | 45 of 708 | 17 of 24 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.38% | 47 of 703 | 17 of 24 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.82% | 23 of 655 | 17 of 24 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.63% | 30 of 672 | 19 of 24 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.51% | 36 of 677 | 19 of 24 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.0074% | 413 of 434 | 4 of 24 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.0082% | 423 of 447 | 5 of 24 |
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 almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
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 . 24 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 19% | 3.5 work weeks4.2 work days to 2.9 work months | 0%Half by Feb 2029 | |
| Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 15% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 31%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 6.7 h3.3 h to 2.1 work days | 86%Half by now | |
| Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 9% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.3 work days | 80%Half by now | |
| Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 1 work day | 99%Half by now | |
| Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as how to speak and write a foreign language and the cultural aspects of areas where a particular language is used.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 8% | 2.5 h1.7 h to 5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Organize and direct study abroad programs.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 5% | 4.2 work days1 work day to 2.8 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Participate in campus and community events.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 4% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 1.7 h50 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 1.1 h38 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 3% | 1.3 work weeks2.1 work days to 3.3 work weeks | 2%Half by Jan 2028 | |
| Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 3% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | 80%Half by now |
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.
- English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary28% now, 59% by 2028
- Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary52% now, 79% by 2028
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education40% now, 41% by 2028
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors66% now, 66% by 2028
- History Teachers, Postsecondary35% now, 69% by 2028
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education43% now, 44% 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 Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 49% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 73% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (63% to 82% across the three paces the site shows). 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 Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 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: Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head (86% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts (99% of the task's time now); and Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as how to speak and write a foreign language and the cultural aspects of areas where a particular language is used (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Organize and direct study abroad programs; Participate in campus and community events; and Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions. Together such tasks are about 16% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.0082% went to this job's tasks, the 423rd largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 5 of its 24 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 24%. 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 Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 24 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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