Telephone Operators
In short: today's best AI models could do about 64% 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 36% of the time, stays with people.
Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.
3,430 people do this job in the US. $41,740 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on25 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people15 h
Telephone Operators, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 25 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 15 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls (about 4 h); Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information (about 4 h); Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information (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.
- 64%
- 0%
- 36%
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, 49%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 63%. Today's estimate: 64%.
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 14 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: none to 0.0057% (released February and March 2025); 0.0027% to 0.013% (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.0057% | 564 of 703 | 2 of 14 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.0027% | 601 of 655 | 1 of 14 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.0087% | 499 of 672 | 1 of 14 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.013% | 460 of 677 | 1 of 14 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
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 11% of this job's working time as physical work. For 11% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 11% in a purpose-built cell. 0.11 of 3, the 509th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 89%
- In a purpose-built cell 11%
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 . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.Done hourly or more by most who do it. AI observed on this task.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Automated Delivery Unit Sorter (ADUS) (U.S. Postal Service) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 36% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 10% | 3 min2 min to 7 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 9% | 4 min3 min to 8 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 3 min2 min to 7 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Keep records of calls placed and received, and of related toll charges.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Update directory information.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Offer special assistance to persons such as those who are unable to dial or who are in emergency situations.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 6 min3 min to 13 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 2 min1 min to 4 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 2 min1 min to 3 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Provide assistance for customers with special billing requests.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Monitor automated systems for placing collect calls and intervene for a callers needing assistance.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 2% | 4 min2 min to 8 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Promote company products, services, and savings plans when appropriate.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 2% | 4 min2 min to 10 min | 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.
- Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service77% now, 77% by 2028
- Receptionists and Information Clerks60% now, 60% by 2028
- Telemarketers56% now, 56% by 2028
- Office Clerks, General56% now, 56% by 2028
- Customer Service Representatives64% now, 64% by 2028
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers13% 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 Telephone Operators is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 64% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 64% 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 Telephone Operators 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: Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls (100% of the task's time now); Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information (100% of the task's time now); and Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Telephone Operators stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail. Together such tasks are about 36% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Telephone Operators?
- 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 Telephone Operators?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 11% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 11% of the working time. Its index is 0.11 of 3. One example: Automated Delivery Unit Sorter (ADUS) for "perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail". 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 14 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.
This job in your state or metro area
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
This occupation has not been reviewed task by task yet, so the full personal report is not offered for it; 402 of 923 occupations are reviewed so far, largest first.