UK AI Exposure · Administrative and secretarial occupations
Receptionists
Receptionists receive and direct telephone calls and visitors to commercial, government and other establishments.
- Employees (UK)
- 185k
- Median annual pay
- £18,152
- Exposure score ?
- 2.2/10 Low direct 2.2 · with tools 9.0
- Wage exposure
- £739m
Higher exposure than 84% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
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.
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.
4 of 18 tasks in this role are things an AI can already do today. Task list mapped via O*NET "Receptionists and Information Clerks" (43-4171.00).
Analyze data to determine answers to questions from customers or members of the public.
Calculate and quote rates for tours, stocks, insurance policies, or other products or services.
Perform administrative support tasks, such as proofreading, transcribing handwritten information, or operating calculators or computers to work with pay records, invoices, balance sheets, or other documents.
Process and prepare memos, correspondence, travel vouchers, or other documents.
Operate telephone switchboard to answer, screen, or forward calls, providing information, taking messages, or scheduling appointments.
Greet persons entering establishment, determine nature and purpose of visit, and direct or escort them to specific destinations.
Receive payment and record receipts for services.
Schedule appointments and maintain and update appointment calendars.
Transmit information or documents to customers, using computer, mail, or facsimile machine.
Hear and resolve complaints from customers or the public.
File and maintain records.
Provide information about establishment, such as location of departments or offices, employees within the organization, or services provided.
Collect, sort, distribute, or prepare mail, messages, or courier deliveries.
Keep a current record of staff members' whereabouts and availability.
Schedule space or equipment for special programs and prepare lists of participants.
Perform duties, such as taking care of plants or straightening magazines to maintain lobby or reception area.
Enroll individuals to participate in programs and notify them of their acceptance.
Take orders for merchandise or materials and send them to the proper departments to be filled.
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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Analyze data to determine answers to questions from customers or members of the public.
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Calculate and quote rates for tours, stocks, insurance policies, or other products or services.
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Perform administrative support tasks, such as proofreading, transcribing handwritten information, or operating calculators or computers to work with pay records, invoices, balance sheets, or other documents.
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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