Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation
In short: today's best AI models could do about 18% 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 82% of the time, stays with people.
Mix or apply pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides through sprays, dusts, vapors, soil incorporation, or chemical application on trees, shrubs, lawns, or crops. Usually requires specific training and state or federal certification.
27,050 people do this job in the US. $46,340 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on7 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people33 h
Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 7 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 33 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Establish driving routes for pesticide applications (about 4 h); Record information about pesticide applications, such as the type used and amount applied (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.
- 18%
- 0%
- 82%
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, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 17%. Today's estimate: 18%.
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
None of this job's 12 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
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 98% of this job's working time as physical work. For 89% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 34% in a purpose-built cell, 55% in a structured facility. 1.45 of 3, the 24th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 2%
- No robot shown 9%
- In a purpose-built cell 34%
- In a structured facility 55%
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 . 12 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lift, push, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Turf Tank Two autonomous line-marking robot (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 27% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Cover areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation-to-distance ratios, and obstructions.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, ASTRO (Autonomous Sprayer for Turf Range Operations) (Frost Inc., with Mach autonomy platform) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 22% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Establish driving routes for pesticide applications.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Mix pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SurePoint QuickDraw (with ChemBlade induction) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 25 min13 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Identify lawn or plant diseases to determine the appropriate course of treatment.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, PhenoAIxpert HT / Conveyor Scanalyzer (LemnaTec) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Fill sprayer tanks with water and chemicals, according to formulas.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SurePoint QuickDraw Max (automated chemical mixing and loading system) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 21 min13 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Record information about pesticide applications, such as the type used and amount applied.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Connect hoses and nozzles selected according to terrain, distribution pattern requirements, types of infestations, and velocities.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, bmToolChanger quick-change system for painting robots (b+m surface systems GmbH) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 17 min8 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Start motors and engage machinery, such as sprayer agitators or pumps or portable spray equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Turf Tank Two autonomous field-marking robot (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 8 min4 min to 13 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean or service machinery to ensure operating efficiency, using water, gasoline, lubricants, or hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 33 min17 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Plant grass with seed spreaders, and operate straw blowers to cover seeded areas with mixtures of asphalt and straw.Done yearly or less by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Sabanto autonomous guidance package on John Deere 6130E with Deere 1745 planter (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 0.9% | 1.7 h25 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide driving instructions to truck drivers to ensure complete coverage of designated areas, using hand and horn signals.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 0.2% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | 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.
- Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Agricultural Equipment Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators33% now, 33% by 2028
- Pest Control Workers14% now, 14% by 2028
- Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment1% now, 1% by 2028
- Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse3% now, 3% 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 Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 18% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 18% 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 Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation 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: Establish driving routes for pesticide applications (100% of the task's time now); and Record information about pesticide applications, such as the type used and amount applied (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Lift, push, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas; Cover areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation-to-distance ratios, and obstructions; and Mix pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops. Together such tasks are about 82% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation?
- 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 Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 98% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 89% of the working time, 55% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.45 of 3. One example: Turf Tank Two autonomous line-marking robot for "lift, push, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas". 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 12 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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