UK AI Exposure · Elementary occupations
Coffee shop workers
Coffee shop workers make and serve coffee, food and other beverages in coffee shops and cafés, and perform various cleaning, fetching and carrying tasks.
- Employees (UK)
- 16k
- Median annual pay
- £12,170
- Exposure score ?
- 1.0/10 Minimal 2.8/10 Low strict reading · with tools is 2.8/10 with-tools reading · strict is 1.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £19m £55m
Higher exposure than 57% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
A handful of tasks in this role are touchable by AI, mostly around paperwork, scheduling and basic writing. The shape of the role stays the same - some parts just get faster.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Pick the two or three most repetitive things in your week and try an LLM on them. Most people underestimate what Claude or ChatGPT can already do for admin-shaped work. The time you get back is the dividend.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where we start — flip the toggle to 'With tools' to see what AI plus the right context can compress.
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Clean glasses, utensils, and bar equipment.
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Collect money for drinks served.
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Balance cash receipts.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Balance cash receipts.
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Plan, organize, and control the operations of a cocktail lounge or bar.
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Order or requisition liquors and supplies.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Bartenders" (35-3011.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 20 tasks · unaided
Balance cash receipts.
Create drink recipes.
Where humans still hold the line
18 of 20 tasks
Clean glasses, utensils, and bar equipment.
Collect money for drinks served.
Check identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol.
Clean bars, work areas, and tables.
Attempt to limit problems and liability related to customers' excessive drinking by taking steps such as persuading customers to stop drinking, or ordering taxis or other transportation for intoxicated patrons.
Take beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons.
Serve wine, and bottled or draft beer.
Plan, organize, and control the operations of a cocktail lounge or bar.
Stock bar with beer, wine, liquor, and related supplies such as ice, glassware, napkins, or straws.
Serve snacks or food items to customers seated at the bar.
Supervise the work of bar staff and other bartenders.
Mix ingredients, such as liquor, soda, water, sugar, and bitters, to prepare cocktails and other drinks.
Order or requisition liquors and supplies.
Slice and pit fruit for garnishing drinks.
Ask customers who become loud and obnoxious to leave, or physically remove them.
Arrange bottles and glasses to make attractive displays.
Plan bar menus.
Prepare appetizers such as pickles, cheese, and cold meats.
Tasks via O*NET "Bartenders" (35-3011.00).
What AI can already do
6 of 20 tasks · with tools
Balance cash receipts.
Plan, organize, and control the operations of a cocktail lounge or bar.
Order or requisition liquors and supplies.
Arrange bottles and glasses to make attractive displays.
Plan bar menus.
Create drink recipes.
Where humans still hold the line
14 of 20 tasks
Clean glasses, utensils, and bar equipment.
Collect money for drinks served.
Check identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol.
Clean bars, work areas, and tables.
Attempt to limit problems and liability related to customers' excessive drinking by taking steps such as persuading customers to stop drinking, or ordering taxis or other transportation for intoxicated patrons.
Take beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons.
Serve wine, and bottled or draft beer.
Stock bar with beer, wine, liquor, and related supplies such as ice, glassware, napkins, or straws.
Serve snacks or food items to customers seated at the bar.
Supervise the work of bar staff and other bartenders.
Mix ingredients, such as liquor, soda, water, sugar, and bitters, to prepare cocktails and other drinks.
Slice and pit fruit for garnishing drinks.
Ask customers who become loud and obnoxious to leave, or physically remove them.
Prepare appetizers such as pickles, cheese, and cold meats.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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