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Office & Administration · Updated Aug 2026

Telephone Operators

Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
AI Exposure
63/100
High

How much of this occupation’s work can be materially affected by current AI systems.

Replacement Risk
57/100
Moderate

How likely exposure is to translate into reduced human demand.

Includes provisional estimates for AI adoption pressure and labour-market resilience. How this is measured

Evidence quality
Confidence83/100
Task coverage88%

Confidence reflects task coverage, mapping and capability-evidence quality, and how much of the score rests on provisional inputs.

Task-level evidence

What is driving the score?

Occupation scores are built from the task mix—not a single prediction about a job title.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
TaskImportanceAI impactExposure
Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.High
68
Operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls.High
68
Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.High
70
Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.High
73
Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information.High
61
Keep records of calls placed and received, and of related toll charges.Medium
73
Offer special assistance to persons such as those who are unable to dial or who are in emergency situations.High
73
Monitor automated systems for placing collect calls and intervene for a callers needing assistance.High
56
Promote company products, services, and savings plans when appropriate.Medium
72
Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.High
33
Provide assistance for customers with special billing requests.Medium
63
Most exposed

Where AI can do more

Routine, digitized, and highly repeatable tasks face the greatest pressure.

  1. Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.73
  2. Keep records of calls placed and received, and of related toll charges.73
  3. Offer special assistance to persons such as those who are unable to dial or who are in emergency situations.73
  4. Promote company products, services, and savings plans when appropriate.72
Hardest to automate

Where people still matter

These tasks score lowest on automation feasibility—physical presence, judgement, accountability and real-world variability all resist end-to-end automation.

  1. Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.01
  2. Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.02
  3. Operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls.03
  4. Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.04
  5. Keep records of calls placed and received, and of related toll charges.05
Where else this work leads

Related occupations

Occupations O*NET links to this one. Relatedness reflects shared work, not a claim that these roles are safer.

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Beyond AI capability

Adoption and labour-market outlook

Structural factors are kept separate from raw capability so you can see what actually resists automation. Adoption pressure and labour-market resilience are still provisional models—25% of this occupation’s replacement-risk weight rests on them.

Human dependency77
Physical dependency31
Adoption pressure65
Labour-market resilience54
Methodology & sources

O*NET 30.3 occupational data interpreted through the JobsVsAI capability, automation and structural-constraint models.

Confidence83/100
CalculatedAug 21, 2026
Read methodology →