AI exposure: Tour Guides and Escorts
Escort individuals or groups on sightseeing tours or through places of interest, such as industrial establishments, public buildings, and art galleries.
Reading this score
computed34.8% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Tour Guides and Escorts at the 60th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.1 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is presence. Across this occupation's 19 tasks it averages 1.79 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 Provide directions and other pertinent information to visitors, at 80.0%. The least is Provide for physical safety of groups, performing such activities as providing first aid or..., 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 personal care and service occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 31 roles in the group is 23.4%, and only 6 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 19 tasks, 11 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 7 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take capability alone, since there is little structural friction here to slow adoption once a system can do the work. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provide directions and other pertinent information to visitors. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.02 | exposed |
| Describe tour points of interest to group members, and respond to questions. | 67.1% | 20.4% | 12.5% | 4.86 | exposed |
| Assemble and check the required supplies and equipment prior to departure. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.10 | exposed |
| Research various topics, including site history, environmental conditions, and clients' skills and abilities to plan appropriate expeditions, instruction, and commentary. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.14 | exposed |
| Distribute brochures, show audiovisual presentations, and explain establishment processes and operations at tour sites. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.03 | exposed |
| Perform clerical duties, such as filing, typing, operating switchboards, or routing mail and messages. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.59 | exposed |
| Provide information about wildlife varieties and habitats, as well as any relevant regulations, such as those pertaining to hunting and fishing. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.82 | exposed |
| Solicit tour patronage and sell souvenirs. | 41.7% | 20.8% | 37.5% | 3.11 | exposed |
| Collect fees and tickets from group members. | 36.7% | 13.3% | 50.0% | 3.73 | exposed |
| Speak foreign languages to communicate with foreign visitors. | 35.4% | 27.1% | 37.5% | 2.92 | exposed |
| Train other guides and volunteers. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Select travel routes and sites to be visited based on knowledge of specific areas. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.68 | assisted |
| Greet and register visitors, and issue any required identification badges or safety devices. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Escort individuals or groups on cruises, sightseeing tours, or through places of interest, such as industrial establishments, public buildings, or art galleries. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Teach skills, such as proper climbing methods, and demonstrate and advise on the use of equipment. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
| Conduct educational activities for school children. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.18 | untouched |
| Monitor visitors' activities to ensure compliance with establishment or tour regulations and safety practices. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
| Drive motor vehicles to transport visitors to establishments and tour site locations. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
| Provide for physical safety of groups, performing such activities as providing first aid or directing emergency evacuations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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 | 2.08 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.63 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.79 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.63 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.39 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.08 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
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.