AI exposure: Substitute Teachers, Short-Term
Teach students on a short-term basis as a temporary replacement for a regular classroom teacher, typically using the regular teacher's lesson plan.
Reading this score
computedAt 16.3% of weighted task load, Substitute Teachers, Short-Term sits at the 27th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 70.2% 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 presence. Across this occupation's 18 tasks it averages 2.03 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, a person has to be the one present. This is the friction software does not erode. Where the point of the act is that a human is there, to care or to witness or to take responsibility in the room, automating the output misses what was being paid for.
The most exposed thing this job does is Take class attendance and maintain attendance records, at 66.7%. The least is Assist students with boarding or exiting school buses, at 0.0%. A gap of 66.7% 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 educational instruction and library occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 42.4% across the group's 62 roles, with 61 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 18 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 12 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 | 1.25 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.67 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.03 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.06 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.75 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.14 | 0-3 |
Task by task
18 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take class attendance and maintain attendance records. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.53 | exposed |
| Grade students' assignments and exams. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.59 | exposed |
| Counsel students with adjustment or academic problems. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.01 | exposed |
| Restock teaching materials or supplies. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.58 | exposed |
| Tutor or assist students individually or in small groups. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Operate equipment such as computers or audio-visual aids to supplement presentations. | 23.8% | 13.8% | 62.5% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Organize and supervise games or other recreational activities. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.34 | assisted |
| Answer students' questions. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Follow lesson plans designed by absent teachers. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Teach a variety of subjects, such as English, mathematics, and social studies. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Teach social skills to students, such as communication, conflict resolution, and etiquette. | 9.2% | 15.8% | 75.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, or assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Enforce school and class rules to maintain order in the classroom. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Supervise students during activities outside the classroom, such as recess, lunch, and field trips. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Distribute or collect tests or homework assignments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.25 | untouched |
| Distribute teaching materials, such as textbooks, workbooks, papers, and pencils, to students. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, or teacher training workshops to improve professional competence. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.53 | untouched |
| Assist students with boarding or exiting school buses. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.31 | 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.