UK AI Exposure · Elementary occupations
Elementary administration occupations n.e.c.
Job holders in this unit group perform a variety of elementary clerical and administrative tasks within offices not elsewhere classified in minor group: 921 Elementary administration occupations.
- Employees (UK)
- 23k
- Median annual pay
- £23,005
- Exposure score ?
- 4.7/10 Moderate 7.0/10 High strict reading · with tools is 7.0/10 with-tools reading · strict is 4.7/10
- Wage exposure
- £249m £370m
Higher exposure than 95% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
A meaningful slice of the task inventory is AI-reachable - the drafting, summarising, research and analysis parts especially. This role is at the point where the people who learn to direct AI well pull ahead of the people who don't.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Treat AI as a colleague you manage, not a tool you use. Identify the tasks where you'd describe the work to a capable junior - those are the tasks AI can do for you now. Spend your time on the judgment calls and the relationships instead.
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.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
These are the highest-importance tasks a language model can already handle directly today. 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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Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
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Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.
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Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.
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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Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
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Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.
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Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.
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 "File Clerks" (43-4071.00).
What AI can already do
12 of 19 tasks · unaided
Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.
Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.
Gather materials to be filed from departments or employees.
Track materials removed from files to ensure that borrowed files are returned.
Add new material to file records or create new records as necessary.
Sort or classify information according to guidelines, such as content, purpose, user criteria, or chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order.
Eliminate outdated or unnecessary materials, destroying them or transferring them to inactive storage, according to file maintenance guidelines or legal requirements.
Answer questions about records or files.
Assign and record or stamp identification numbers or codes to index materials for filing.
Design forms related to filing systems.
Modify or improve filing systems or implement new filing systems.
Where humans still hold the line
7 of 19 tasks
Complete general financial activities, such as processing accounts payable, reviewing invoices, collecting cash payments, or issuing receipts.
Find, retrieve, and make copies of information from files in response to requests and deliver information to authorized users.
Scan or read incoming materials to determine how and where they should be classified or filed.
Place materials into storage receptacles, such as file cabinets, boxes, bins, or drawers, according to classification and identification information.
Perform periodic inspections of materials or files to ensure correct placement, legibility, or proper condition.
Retrieve documents stored in microfilm or microfiche and place them in viewers for reading.
Operate mechanized files that rotate to bring needed records to a particular location.
Tasks via O*NET "File Clerks" (43-4071.00).
What AI can already do
17 of 19 tasks · with tools
Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.
Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.
Gather materials to be filed from departments or employees.
Complete general financial activities, such as processing accounts payable, reviewing invoices, collecting cash payments, or issuing receipts.
Track materials removed from files to ensure that borrowed files are returned.
Find, retrieve, and make copies of information from files in response to requests and deliver information to authorized users.
Add new material to file records or create new records as necessary.
Sort or classify information according to guidelines, such as content, purpose, user criteria, or chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order.
Eliminate outdated or unnecessary materials, destroying them or transferring them to inactive storage, according to file maintenance guidelines or legal requirements.
Scan or read incoming materials to determine how and where they should be classified or filed.
Answer questions about records or files.
Assign and record or stamp identification numbers or codes to index materials for filing.
Perform periodic inspections of materials or files to ensure correct placement, legibility, or proper condition.
Retrieve documents stored in microfilm or microfiche and place them in viewers for reading.
Design forms related to filing systems.
Modify or improve filing systems or implement new filing systems.
Where humans still hold the line
2 of 19 tasks
Place materials into storage receptacles, such as file cabinets, boxes, bins, or drawers, according to classification and identification information.
Operate mechanized files that rotate to bring needed records to a particular location.
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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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