How exposed to AI is the job of Cooks, Short Order?

7.6% of the weighted task load of Cooks, Short Order is exposed, meaning work current AI systems can produce with little structural friction. A further 4.4% is assisted work and 88.1% is untouched. That places it 9th out of 923 occupations, rank 837, in release v2026.Q3 of the Task Exposure Index.

Will AI replace Cooks, Short Order?

The index does not measure displacement. It measures what current AI systems can produce and what stands in the way. Whether exposed work becomes a lost job depends on firm economics, regulation and organisational inertia, none of which this index models.

Which tasks of a Cooks, Short Order are most exposed to AI?

Of 11 tasks O*NET records for this occupation, 2 are exposed, 0 assisted and 9 untouched. The full task-by-task breakdown is published on this page.

Occupation · SOC 35-2015.00 · Job Zone 2

AI exposure: Cooks, Short Order

Prepare and cook to order a variety of foods that require only a short preparation time. May take orders from customers and serve patrons at counters or tables.

Reading this score

computed

Cooks, Short Order is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 7.6% of weighted task load, rank 837 of 923. 88.1% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.

What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 11 tasks it averages 2.50 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.

The most exposed thing this job does is Accept payments, and make change or write charge slips as necessary, at 80.0%. The least is Grill and garnish hamburgers or other meats, at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.

Within food preparation and serving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 18.2% across the group's 16 roles, with 11 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.

What would move this score. Of 11 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 9 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.

Where the score comes from

judged

Every task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.

Dimension	Mean	Scale
Capability	0.82	0-4
Embodiment	2.50	0-3
Presence	0.82	0-3
Accountability	0.76	0-3
Context	1.06	0-3
Verification cost	1.02	0-3

Task by task

11 tasks, O*NET 31.0

Task	Exposed	Assisted	Untouched	Importance	Band
Accept payments, and make change or write charge slips as necessary.	80.0%	20.0%	0.0%	3.06	exposed
Order supplies and stock them on shelves.	35.0%	15.0%	50.0%	3.74	exposed
Take orders from customers and cook foods requiring short preparation times, according to customer requirements.	23.8%	13.8%	62.5%	4.20	untouched
Plan work on orders so that items served together are finished at the same time.	10.0%	15.0%	75.0%	4.59	untouched
Restock kitchen supplies, rotate food, and stamp the time and date on food in coolers.	7.5%	5.0%	87.5%	4.69	untouched
Clean food preparation equipment, work areas, and counters or tables.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.83	untouched
Complete orders from steam tables, placing food on plates and serving customers at tables or counters.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.61	untouched
Grill, cook, and fry foods such as french fries, eggs, and pancakes.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.54	untouched
Perform food preparation tasks, such as making sandwiches, carving meats, making soups or salads, baking breads or desserts, and brewing coffee or tea.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.43	untouched
Perform general cleaning activities in kitchen and dining areas.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.37	untouched
Grill and garnish hamburgers or other meats, such as steaks and chops.	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	4.73	untouched

Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.

Occupations either side of this one

The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.

Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.

What this means in practice

Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.