UK AI Exposure · Elementary occupations
Farm workers
Farm workers perform a variety of tasks, by hand and machine, to produce and harvest crops and to breed and rear cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.
- Employees (UK)
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- Median annual pay
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- Exposure score ?
- 0.4/10 Minimal 2.1/10 Low strict reading · with tools is 2.1/10 with-tools reading · strict is 0.4/10
- Wage exposure
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Higher exposure than 26% 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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Sell and deliver plants and flowers to customers.
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Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.
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Direct and monitor the work of casual and seasonal help during planting and harvesting.
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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Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.
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Feel plants' leaves and note their coloring to detect the presence of insects or disease.
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Provide information and advice to the public regarding the selection, purchase, and care of products.
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 "Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse" (45-2092.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 27 tasks · unaided
Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.
Record information about plants and plant growth.
Where humans still hold the line
25 of 27 tasks
Sell and deliver plants and flowers to customers.
Direct and monitor the work of casual and seasonal help during planting and harvesting.
Participate in the inspection, grading, sorting, storage, and post-harvest treatment of crops.
Harvest plants, and transplant or pot and label them.
Regulate greenhouse conditions, and indoor and outdoor irrigation systems.
Feel plants' leaves and note their coloring to detect the presence of insects or disease.
Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
Provide information and advice to the public regarding the selection, purchase, and care of products.
Harvest fruits and vegetables by hand.
Set up and operate irrigation equipment.
Maintain and repair irrigation and climate control systems.
Inform farmers or farm managers of crop progress.
Dig, cut, and transplant seedlings, cuttings, trees, and shrubs.
Identify plants, pests, and weeds to determine the selection and application of pesticides and fertilizers.
Operate tractors, tractor-drawn machinery, and self-propelled machinery to plow, harrow and fertilize soil, or to plant, cultivate, spray and harvest crops.
Maintain inventory, ordering materials as required.
Dig, rake, and screen soil, filling cold frames and hot beds in preparation for planting.
Load agricultural products into trucks, and drive trucks to market or storage facilities.
Inspect plants and bud ties to assess quality.
Move containerized shrubs, plants, and trees, using wheelbarrows or tractors.
Tie and bunch flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees, wrap their roots, and pack them into boxes to fill orders.
Clean work areas, and maintain grounds and landscaping.
Haul and spread topsoil, fertilizer, peat moss, and other materials to condition soil, using wheelbarrows or carts and shovels.
Repair farm buildings, fences, and other structures.
Plant, spray, weed, fertilize, water, and prune plants, shrubs, and trees, using gardening tools.
Tasks via O*NET "Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse" (45-2092.00).
What AI can already do
7 of 27 tasks · with tools
Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.
Feel plants' leaves and note their coloring to detect the presence of insects or disease.
Provide information and advice to the public regarding the selection, purchase, and care of products.
Identify plants, pests, and weeds to determine the selection and application of pesticides and fertilizers.
Record information about plants and plant growth.
Maintain inventory, ordering materials as required.
Inspect plants and bud ties to assess quality.
Where humans still hold the line
20 of 27 tasks
Sell and deliver plants and flowers to customers.
Direct and monitor the work of casual and seasonal help during planting and harvesting.
Participate in the inspection, grading, sorting, storage, and post-harvest treatment of crops.
Harvest plants, and transplant or pot and label them.
Regulate greenhouse conditions, and indoor and outdoor irrigation systems.
Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
Harvest fruits and vegetables by hand.
Set up and operate irrigation equipment.
Maintain and repair irrigation and climate control systems.
Inform farmers or farm managers of crop progress.
Dig, cut, and transplant seedlings, cuttings, trees, and shrubs.
Operate tractors, tractor-drawn machinery, and self-propelled machinery to plow, harrow and fertilize soil, or to plant, cultivate, spray and harvest crops.
Dig, rake, and screen soil, filling cold frames and hot beds in preparation for planting.
Load agricultural products into trucks, and drive trucks to market or storage facilities.
Move containerized shrubs, plants, and trees, using wheelbarrows or tractors.
Tie and bunch flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees, wrap their roots, and pack them into boxes to fill orders.
Clean work areas, and maintain grounds and landscaping.
Haul and spread topsoil, fertilizer, peat moss, and other materials to condition soil, using wheelbarrows or carts and shovels.
Repair farm buildings, fences, and other structures.
Plant, spray, weed, fertilize, water, and prune plants, shrubs, and trees, using gardening tools.
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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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