AI exposure: Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners
Keep buildings in clean and orderly condition. Perform heavy cleaning duties, such as cleaning floors, shampooing rugs, washing walls and glass, and removing rubbish. Duties may include tending furnace and boiler, performing routine maintenance activities, notifying management of need for repairs, and cleaning snow or debris from sidewalk.
Reading this score
computedAt 9.5% of weighted task load, Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners sits at the 13th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 85.8% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 21 tasks it averages 2.81 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 Requisition supplies or equipment needed for cleaning and maintenance duties, at 65.0%. The least is Steam-clean or shampoo carpets, at 0.0%. A gap of 65.0% 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 building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 19.9% across the group's 8 roles, with 5 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 21 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 19 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
judgedEvery 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 | 0.49 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.81 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.44 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.44 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.63 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.66 | 0-3 |
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requisition supplies or equipment needed for cleaning and maintenance duties. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Notify managers concerning the need for major repairs or additions to building operating systems. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.20 | exposed |
| Make adjustments or minor repairs to heating, cooling, ventilating, plumbing, or electrical systems. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.49 | untouched |
| Set up, arrange, or remove decorations, tables, chairs, ladders, or scaffolding to prepare facilities for events, such as banquets or meetings. | 9.2% | 3.3% | 87.5% | 3.36 | untouched |
| Monitor building security and safety by performing tasks such as locking doors after operating hours or checking electrical appliance use to ensure that hazards are not created. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Drive vans, industrial trucks, or other vehicles required to travel to, or to perform, cleaning work. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.43 | untouched |
| Remove snow from sidewalks, driveways, or parking areas, using snowplows, snow blowers, or snow shovels, or spread snow-melting chemicals. | 7.1% | 5.4% | 87.5% | 3.53 | untouched |
| Mow or trim lawns or shrubbery, using mowers or hand or power trimmers, and clear debris from grounds. | 5.9% | 2.4% | 91.7% | 3.09 | untouched |
| Service, clean, or supply restrooms. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Gather and empty trash. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.23 | untouched |
| Clean building floors by sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, or vacuuming. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Follow procedures for the use of chemical cleaners and power equipment to prevent damage to floors and fixtures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Mix water and detergents or acids in containers to prepare cleaning solutions, according to specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Clean windows, glass partitions, or mirrors, using soapy water or other cleaners, sponges, or squeegees. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.80 | untouched |
| Dust furniture, walls, machines, or equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.74 | untouched |
| Clean and polish furniture and fixtures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.46 | untouched |
| Move heavy furniture, equipment, or supplies, either manually or with hand trucks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.42 | untouched |
| Strip, seal, finish, and polish floors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.72 | untouched |
| Spray insecticides or fumigants to prevent insect or rodent infestation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.36 | untouched |
| Clean chimneys, flues, and connecting pipes, using power or hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.24 | untouched |
| Steam-clean or shampoo carpets. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.03 | 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.