UK AI Exposure · Sales and customer service occupations
Communication operators
Communication operators operate telecoms equipment to transmit and receive signals and messages.
- Employees (UK)
- 15k
- Median annual pay
- £34,934
- Exposure score ?
- 7.0/10 High direct 7.0 · with tools 8.3
- Wage exposure
- £367m
Higher exposure than 100% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of the routine task inventory in this role can already be done by a capable LLM. That doesn't mean the role disappears - it means the shape changes, and one person can credibly do the work of several.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Stop doing anything an LLM can do. Your edge is judgment, relationships, taste, and the parts of the work that require you to be in the room. The operators who notice this first and redesign their workflow around it will be paid for those things; the ones who cling to the old task list will compete against AI at AI's prices.
The tasks in this role, ranked by AI exposure
Below are the real tasks O*NET records for this occupation, sorted highest exposure first. "AI can do this" means a language model can already handle the task directly. "AI can help" means an LLM can assist but not replace. "Human work" means today's AI doesn't touch it. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
10 of 19 tasks in this role are things an AI can already do today. Task list mapped via O*NET "Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service" (43-2011.00).
Operate communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.
Record messages, suggesting rewording for clarity or conciseness.
Page individuals to inform them of telephone calls, using paging or interoffice communication equipment.
Complete forms for sales orders.
Relay or route written or verbal messages.
Place telephone calls or arrange conference calls as instructed.
Answer simple questions about clients' businesses, using reference files.
Stamp messages with time and date and file them appropriately.
Keep records of calls placed and charges incurred.
Perform various data entry or word processing tasks, such as updating phone directories, typing or proofreading documents, or creating schedules.
Answer incoming calls, greeting callers, providing information, transferring calls or taking messages as necessary.
Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.
Monitor alarm systems to ensure that secure conditions are maintained.
Contact security staff members when necessary, using radio-telephones.
Monitor emergency and code alarms, make emergency announcements, or route emergency calls to the appropriate location.
Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.
Process incoming or outgoing mail, packages, or deliveries.
Perform administrative tasks, such as accepting orders, scheduling appointments or meeting rooms, or sending and receiving faxes.
Place orders, such as for equipment, supplies, or catering for meetings.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
These are the highest-importance tasks in this role that a language model can already handle directly. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these, so they stop eating your team's time.
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Operate communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.
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Record messages, suggesting rewording for clarity or conciseness.
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Page individuals to inform them of telephone calls, using paging or interoffice communication equipment.
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 →
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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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