UK AI Exposure · Elementary occupations
Security guards and related occupations
Security guards and related occupations protect merchandise, individuals, hotels, offices, factories, shops, public grounds and private estates from injury, theft or damage.
- Employees (UK)
- 93k
- Median annual pay
- £30,819
- Exposure score ?
- 1.3/10 Minimal direct 1.3 · with tools 4.4
- Wage exposure
- £373m
Higher exposure than 65% 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.
0 of 26 tasks in this role are things an AI can already do today. Task list mapped via O*NET "Transportation Security Screeners" (33-9093.00).
Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
Check passengers' tickets to ensure that they are valid, and to determine whether passengers have designations that require special handling, such as providing photo identification.
Test baggage for any explosive materials, using equipment such as explosive detection machines or chemical swab systems.
Perform pat-down or hand-held wand searches of passengers who have triggered machine alarms, who are unable to pass through metal detectors, or who have been randomly identified for such searches.
Notify supervisors or other appropriate personnel when security breaches occur.
Send checked baggage through automated screening machines, and set bags aside for searching or rescreening as indicated by equipment.
Decide whether baggage that triggers alarms should be searched or should be allowed to pass through.
Locate suspicious bags pictured in printouts sent from remote monitoring areas, and set these bags aside for inspection.
Follow those who breach security until police or other security personnel arrive to apprehend them.
Inform other screeners when baggage should not be opened because it might contain explosives.
Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering.
Ask passengers to remove shoes and divest themselves of metal objects prior to walking through metal detectors.
Close entry areas following security breaches or reopen areas after receiving notification that the airport is secure.
Challenge suspicious people, requesting their badges and asking what their business is in a particular areas.
Patrol work areas to detect any suspicious items.
Contact police directly in cases of urgent security issues, using phones or two-way radios.
Record information about any baggage that sets off alarms in monitoring equipment.
Watch for potentially dangerous persons whose pictures are posted at checkpoints.
Contact leads or supervisors to discuss objects of concern that are not on prohibited object lists.
Confiscate dangerous items and hazardous materials found in opened bags and turn them over to airlines for disposal.
Monitor passenger flow through screening checkpoints to ensure order and efficiency.
Inform passengers of how to mail prohibited items to themselves, or confiscate these items.
Provide directions and respond to passenger inquiries.
Direct passengers to areas where they can pick up their baggage after screening is complete.
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.
-
Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
-
Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
-
View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
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 →
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.