AI exposure: Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation
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.
Reading this score
computedAt 19.9% of weighted task load, Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation sits at the 36th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 71.3% 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 12 tasks it averages 2.33 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 Record information about pesticide applications, at 73.3%. The least is Cover areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions,..., at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 8 roles in the group is 10.8%, and only 3 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 12 tasks, 3 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
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 | 1.12 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.33 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.62 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.62 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.21 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.92 | 0-3 |
Task by task
12 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record information about pesticide applications, such as the type used and amount applied. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.75 | exposed |
| Establish driving routes for pesticide applications. | 58.3% | 29.2% | 12.5% | 4.05 | exposed |
| Provide driving instructions to truck drivers to ensure complete coverage of designated areas, using hand and horn signals. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 1.54 | exposed |
| Start motors and engage machinery, such as sprayer agitators or pumps or portable spray equipment. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Connect hoses and nozzles selected according to terrain, distribution pattern requirements, types of infestations, and velocities. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Identify lawn or plant diseases to determine the appropriate course of treatment. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.18 | untouched |
| Plant grass with seed spreaders, and operate straw blowers to cover seeded areas with mixtures of asphalt and straw. | 9.2% | 3.3% | 87.5% | 2.28 | untouched |
| Clean or service machinery to ensure operating efficiency, using water, gasoline, lubricants, or hand tools. | 7.9% | 4.6% | 87.5% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Fill sprayer tanks with water and chemicals, according to formulas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.77 | untouched |
| Mix pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Lift, push, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Cover areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation-to-distance ratios, and obstructions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.83 | 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.