UK AI Exposure · Administrative and secretarial occupations
Office managers
Office managers plan, organise and co-ordinate the activities and resources of offices within commercial, industrial and other non-governmental organisations and public agencies. (National and local government office managers are classified to unit group 3561: Public services associate professionals.)
- Employees (UK)
- 195k
- Median annual pay
- £35,000
- Exposure score ?
- 0.8/10 Minimal direct 0.8 · with tools 9.2
- Wage exposure
- £546m
Higher exposure than 45% 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.
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.
2 of 28 tasks in this role are things an AI can already do today. Task list mapped via O*NET "First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers" (43-1011.00).
Interpret and communicate work procedures and company policies to staff.
Compute figures such as balances, totals, or commissions.
Supervise the work of office, administrative, or customer service employees to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures, correcting errors or problems.
Resolve customer complaints or answer customers' questions regarding policies and procedures.
Provide employees with guidance in handling difficult or complex problems or in resolving escalated complaints or disputes.
Review records or reports pertaining to activities such as production, payroll, or shipping to verify details, monitor work activities, or evaluate performance.
Discuss job performance problems with employees to identify causes and issues and to work on resolving problems.
Prepare and issue work schedules, deadlines, and duty assignments for office or administrative staff.
Recruit, interview, and select employees.
Develop work schedules according to budgets and workloads.
Evaluate employees' job performance and conformance to regulations and recommend appropriate personnel action.
Train or instruct employees in job duties or company policies or arrange for training to be provided.
Research, compile, and prepare reports, manuals, correspondence, or other information required by management or governmental agencies.
Implement corporate or departmental policies, procedures, and service standards in conjunction with management.
Analyze financial activities of establishments or departments and provide input into budget planning and preparation processes.
Coordinate activities with other supervisory personnel or with other work units or departments.
Participate in the work of subordinates to facilitate productivity or to overcome difficult aspects of work.
Make recommendations to management concerning such issues as staffing decisions or procedural changes.
Develop or update procedures, policies, or standards.
Maintain records pertaining to inventory, personnel, orders, supplies, or machine maintenance.
Consult with managers or other personnel to resolve problems in areas such as equipment performance, output quality, or work schedules.
Design, implement, or evaluate staff training and development programs, customer service initiatives, or performance measurement criteria.
Keep informed of provisions of labor-management agreements and their effects on departmental operations.
Coordinate or perform activities associated with shipping, receiving, distribution, or transportation.
Monitor inventory levels and requisition or purchase supplies as needed.
Plan for or coordinate office services, such as equipment or supply acquisition or organization, disposal of assets, relocation, parking, maintenance, or security services.
Arrange for necessary maintenance or repair work.
Plan layouts of stockrooms, warehouses, or other storage areas, considering turnover, size, weight, or related factors pertaining to items stored.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict α score is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. But those same tasks compress dramatically when AI is paired with the right context and tools. The three highest-stakes tasks below are usually where we start.
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Supervise the work of office, administrative, or customer service employees to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures, correcting errors or problems.
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Resolve customer complaints or answer customers' questions regarding policies and procedures.
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Provide employees with guidance in handling difficult or complex problems or in resolving escalated complaints or disputes.
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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