Tree Trimmers and Pruners
In short: today's best AI models could do about 5% 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 6% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The conversations, in-person and hands-on work, about 94% of the time, stays with people.
Using sophisticated climbing and rigging techniques, cut away dead or excess branches from trees or shrubs to maintain right-of-way for roads, sidewalks, or utilities, or to improve appearance, health, and value of tree. Prune or treat trees or shrubs using handsaws, hand pruners, clippers, and power pruners. Works off the ground in the tree canopy and may use truck-mounted lifts.
55,160 people do this job in the US. $50,960 a year.
Reviewed on October 18, 2026: what each task is made of, and what handing it over would ask.
A typical 40-hour week
- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work2 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people38 h
Tree Trimmers and Pruners, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 2 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 38 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Budget tree work and appraise trees (about 2 h, a person checks).
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.
- 6%
- 0%
- 0%
- 13%
- 81%
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.
What handing it over would take, now
The 5% within reach splits by what a model would need. The dates, pace and reliability follow the controls above. Estimates.
of the working time. The material can be handed to a model and the result handed back.
of the working time. The model has to be connected to the system the work lives in.
is conversation short enough by length. This site leaves conversation with people, so it is not in the total.
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, 1%. Today's estimate: 5%.
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 24 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0048% to 0.012% (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0048% | 611 of 708 | 1 of 24 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.012% | 480 of 703 | 1 of 24 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 24 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 24 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 24 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 24 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 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 94% of this job's working time as physical work. For 48% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 47% in a purpose-built cell, 1% in a structured facility. 0.49 of 3, the 314th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 6%
- No robot shown 46%
- In a purpose-built cell 47%
- In a structured facility 1%
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.
What changes for the people in this job
From the task-by-task review, by the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five. It says which parts of the work stay with people and which change, not whether anyone keeps a job: that depends on decisions no data set can see.
What stays with people
93% of the working time: the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of the tasks.
- Supervise and train the crew, the in-person work, 13%
- Shape and trim trees, the hands-on work, 12%
- Cut branches, including near power lines, the hands-on work, 9%
- Operate trucks and equipment, the hands-on work, 9%
- Prune, fell and spray as directed, the hands-on work, 8%
- Clear sites of stumps and fallen trees, the hands-on work, 6%
What becomes checking the machine
6% of the working time: desk work a model could do by then, in tasks where a mistake costs something or a licensed person signs. A person checks it.
- Budget tree work and appraise trees, costly if wrong, 6%
What to learn
- The hands-on craft. About 81% of the time is hands-on work, which no model here does; robots are rated separately on this page.
- Judgment where errors are severe. Some tasks are severe if wrong. Knowing when not to trust an output matters more there than speed.
- Signing off under your license. Some tasks need a licensed, certified or sworn person to do or sign them. The license, and the judgment it stands for, stays with the person.
- Reviewing work you did not do yourself. The tasks under What becomes checking the machine, where a mistake costs something, stay a person's to check or sign: spotting what a draft gets wrong is a skill of its own.
Your own version of this job: read it against your job description. The headline is free; the full personal report, every task with its timeline and what to learn, is $19 (a sample).
The tasks
Sorted by . 24 tasks from .
| Task | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supervise others engaged in tree trimming work and train lower-level employees.Leading and teaching a crew on the ground and in the trees.Done daily by most who do it. | 13% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | In person 100% | Stays with people |
| Trim, top, and reshape trees to achieve attractive shapes or to remove low-hanging branches.Trimming and topping aloft to shape the tree or lift its canopy.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers.Cutting dead and excess branches aloft with chainsaws and hand tools, some of it around power lines.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools.Running boom trucks, chippers, loaders and saws, and driving the trucks.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Konecranes CXT biomass crane / waste-to-energy and biomass crane automation (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Prune, cut down, fertilize, and spray trees as directed by tree surgeons.Pruning, felling, feeding and spraying as the tree surgeon directs.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 1.7 h25 min to 4.2 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Plan and develop budgets for tree work, and estimate the monetary value of trees.Working out the budget and the trees' value, after looking them over on site.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h | Documents 70%, hands-on 30% | 64%Desk part half by now |
| Clear sites, streets, and grounds of woody and herbaceous materials, such as tree stumps and fallen trees and limbs.Cutting up and clearing stumps, fallen trees and limbs with saws and grinders.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ANDRITZ autonomous logyard crane (Metris ANDI) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.Feeding limbs and brush into the chipper, where a slip is severe.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Konecranes automated waste handling cranes (Riikinvoima plant, Leppavirta, Finland) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle.Hoisting tools up and lowering branches on ropes and tackle.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ANDRITZ log yard crane with Metris ANDI Autonomous Crane AI (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Collect debris and refuse from tree trimming and removal operations into piles, using shovels, rakes, or other tools.Raking and shoveling the cuttings into piles.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZenRobotics Heavy Picker (Terex) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Load debris and refuse onto trucks and haul it away for disposal.Loading the truck and driving it to disposal.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Konecranes automated waste-to-energy / CXT biomass grab cranes (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Spray trees to treat diseased or unhealthy trees, including mixing chemicals and calibrating spray equipment.Mixing the chemicals, setting the sprayer and spraying, which takes a licensed applicator.Done hourly or more by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, GUSS (Global Unmanned Spray System) autonomous orchard sprayer (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.1 h | Hands-on 100% | 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. Made of: how the task's time splits among five kinds of doing. Only the documents and systems parts can count as within reach, so a task that is 30% documents can be at most 30% 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.
- Fallers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation18% now, 18% by 2028
- Forest and Conservation Workers2% now, 2% by 2028
- Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse3% now, 3% by 2028
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators3% 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 Tree Trimmers and Pruners is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 5% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 6% 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 Tree Trimmers and Pruners 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: Budget tree work and appraise trees (64% of the task's time now, 70% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Tree Trimmers and Pruners stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Supervise and train the crew; Shape and trim trees; and Cut branches, including near power lines. Together such tasks are about 92% of the working time, and the people and body parts of the other tasks stay with people too.
- What should Tree Trimmers and Pruners learn as AI takes on more of the work?
- By the job's own task-by-task review, the first things to learn are the hands-on craft; judgment where errors are severe; and signing off under your license. By the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five, about 93% of the working time stays with people, 6% becomes checking a model's work and 0% could be handed over with lighter checks. It says which parts of the work change, never whether anyone keeps a job.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Tree Trimmers and Pruners?
- 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 Tree Trimmers and Pruners?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 94% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 48% of the working time, 1% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.49 of 3. One example: RAINOS (Innok Robotics) for "water and fertilize trees". 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 24 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, reviewed one task at a time on October 18, 2026 for what each is made of (documents, business systems, conversation, in person, hands-on), 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.
The full personal report is $19, to print or save as a PDF: every task with when it comes within reach, which ones your description names, the parts of your description the task list does not cover, what stays with you, what becomes checking the machine and what to learn.