UK AI Exposure · Professional occupations
Higher education teaching professionals
Higher education teaching professionals deliver lectures and teach students to at least first degree level, undertake research and write journal articles and books in their chosen field of study.
- Employees (UK)
- 246k
- Median annual pay
- £46,494
- Exposure score ?
- 1.9/10 Minimal 7.8/10 High strict reading · with tools is 7.8/10 with-tools reading · strict is 1.9/10
- Wage exposure
- £2.17bn £8.92bn
Higher exposure than 80% 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.
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.
-
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
-
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
-
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
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.
-
Teach writing or communication classes.
-
Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
-
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
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 "English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary" (25-1123.00).
What AI can already do
9 of 33 tasks · unaided
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
Write letters of recommendation for students.
Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
Conduct staff performance evaluations.
Write original literary pieces.
Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
Review manuscripts for publication in professional journals.
Where humans still hold the line
24 of 33 tasks
Teach writing or communication classes.
Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as poetry, novel structure, and translation and adaptation.
Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class.
Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
Teach classes using online technology.
Schedule courses.
Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
Recruit, train, and supervise department personnel, such as faculty and student writing instructors.
Participate in campus and community events.
Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
Participate in cultural and literary activities, such as traveling abroad and attending performing arts events.
Provide assistance to students in college writing centers.
Act as advisers to student organizations.
Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.
Tasks via O*NET "English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary" (25-1123.00).
What AI can already do
27 of 33 tasks · with tools
Teach writing or communication classes.
Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as poetry, novel structure, and translation and adaptation.
Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class.
Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
Teach classes using online technology.
Schedule courses.
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
Write letters of recommendation for students.
Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
Recruit, train, and supervise department personnel, such as faculty and student writing instructors.
Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
Provide assistance to students in college writing centers.
Conduct staff performance evaluations.
Write original literary pieces.
Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
Review manuscripts for publication in professional journals.
Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.
Where humans still hold the line
6 of 33 tasks
Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
Participate in campus and community events.
Participate in cultural and literary activities, such as traveling abroad and attending performing arts events.
Act as advisers to student organizations.
Stay on top of this
One email a week, written for people who aren't AI nerds. What's actually real, what's hype, and what smart operators are doing about it.
Get the weekly note
One email a week from Alex on how AI is changing UK work, how to get ahead of it, and what smart operators are actually doing. Written for people who aren't AI nerds.
Free. Unsubscribe any time.
Or go deeper:
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.
Get the weekly note. One email on how AI is changing UK work.