Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 36% 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 37% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 63% of the time, stays with people.
Perform various tasks to arrange and direct individual funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of body to mortuary, interviewing family or other authorized person to arrange details, selecting pallbearers, aiding with the selection of officials for religious rites, and providing transportation for mourners.
25,100 people do this job in the US. $55,010 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on15 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people25 h
Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 15 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 25 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services (about 5 h); Manage funeral home operations, including the hiring, training, or supervision of embalmers, funeral attendants, or other staff (about 2 h); Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends (about 1 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.
- 37%
- 10%
- 53%
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, 21%. Today's estimate: 36%.
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, 0.0053% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 444th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 22 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0079% to 0.014% (released February and March 2025); 0.0043% to 0.0043% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.0057% to 0.0053% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0079% | 558 of 708 | 2 of 22 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.014% | 471 of 703 | 5 of 22 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.0043% | 549 of 655 | 3 of 22 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.006% | 551 of 672 | 3 of 22 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.0043% | 587 of 677 | 2 of 22 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.0057% | 421 of 434 | 1 of 22 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.0053% | 444 of 447 | 1 of 22 |
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 37% of this job's working time as physical work. For 20% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 16% in a purpose-built cell, 4% in a structured facility. 0.24 of 3, the 410th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 63%
- No robot shown 18%
- In a purpose-built cell 16%
- In a structured facility 4%
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 . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 13% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 6.7 h | 98%Half by now | |
| Perform embalming duties, as necessary.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 5.8 h | Stays with people | |
| Oversee the preparation and care of the remains of people who have died.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 2.1 h50 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 7% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide or arrange transportation between sites for the remains, mourners, pallbearers, clergy, or flowers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Daifuku automated columbarium (AS/RS stacker crane) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Manage funeral home operations, including the hiring, training, or supervision of embalmers, funeral attendants, or other staff.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 6% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 96%Half by now | |
| Plan placement of caskets at funeral sites or place or adjust lights, fixtures, or floral displays.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, DFW Europe Automatic Inserting Machine (AIM) charging bier (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Close caskets and lead funeral corteges to churches or burial sites.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Risong Technology flexible intelligent door/hood/lid assembly line (Changan Mazda) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide information on funeral service options, products, or merchandise, and maintain a casket display area.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min17 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Clean funeral home facilities and grounds.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Whiz (SoftBank Robotics) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Obtain information needed to complete legal documents, such as death certificates or burial permits.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | 100%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.
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 Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 36% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 37% 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 Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers 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: Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services (98% of the task's time now); Manage funeral home operations, including the hiring, training, or supervision of embalmers, funeral attendants, or other staff (96% of the task's time now); and Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Perform embalming duties, as necessary; Oversee the preparation and care of the remains of people who have died; and Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services. Together such tasks are about 63% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.0053% went to this job's tasks, the 444th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 22 tasks appeared. 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 Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 37% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 20% of the working time, 4% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.24 of 3. One example: Whiz (SoftBank Robotics) for "clean funeral home facilities and grounds". 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 22 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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