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 4.4/10 Moderate strict reading, with tools is 4.4/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.3/10
- Wage exposure
- £373m £1.26bn
Higher exposure than 65% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
A real share of the task list is within reach, especially drafting, summarising, research and analysis. People in this role who learn to direct AI well will pull ahead of those who do not.
If you are in this role
Treat AI like a capable junior you manage. Where you would hand a task to a junior with a clear brief, AI can do it now. Spend the time you get back on judgement and relationships.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
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Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
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View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
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View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
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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.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Transportation Security Screeners" (33-9093.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 26 tasks, unaided
No tasks here are labelled as something an LLM can do unaided. Switch to 'With tools' above to see what changes when AI is paired with the right context.
What still needs a person
26 of 26 tasks
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.
Tasks via O*NET "Transportation Security Screeners" (33-9093.00).
What AI can already do
14 of 26 tasks, with tools
Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
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.
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.
Inform other screeners when baggage should not be opened because it might contain explosives.
Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering.
Patrol work areas to detect any suspicious items.
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.
Monitor passenger flow through screening checkpoints to ensure order and efficiency.
Provide directions and respond to passenger inquiries.
What still needs a person
12 of 26 tasks
Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
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.
Follow those who breach security until police or other security personnel arrive to apprehend them.
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.
Contact police directly in cases of urgent security issues, using phones or two-way radios.
Confiscate dangerous items and hazardous materials found in opened bags and turn them over to airlines for disposal.
Inform passengers of how to mail prohibited items to themselves, or confiscate these items.
Direct passengers to areas where they can pick up their baggage after screening is complete.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Elementary occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons