AI exposure: Animal Caretakers
Feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise, or otherwise provide care to promote and maintain the well-being of pets and other animals that are not raised for consumption, such as dogs, cats, race horses, ornamental fish or birds, zoo animals, and mice. Work in settings such as kennels, animal shelters, zoos, circuses, and aquariums. May keep records of feedings, treatments, and animals received or discharged. May clean, disinfect, and repair cages, pens, or fish tanks.
Reading this score
computedAt 18.2% of weighted task load, Animal Caretakers sits at the 31th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 71.8% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 2.09 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Respond to questions from patrons, and provide information about animals, at 80.0%. The least is Train animals to perform certain tasks, at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within personal care and service occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.4% across the group's 31 roles, with 23 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 22 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 15 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.08 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.09 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.82 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.13 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.38 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.27 | 0-3 |
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Respond to questions from patrons, and provide information about animals, such as behavior, habitat, breeding habits, or facility activities. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.18 | exposed |
| Answer telephones and schedule appointments. | 70.0% | 17.5% | 12.5% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Collect and record animal information, such as weight, size, physical condition, treatments received, medications given, and food intake. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.38 | exposed |
| Order, unload, and store feed and supplies. | 52.5% | 22.5% | 25.0% | 3.37 | exposed |
| Discuss with clients their pets' grooming needs. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.89 | exposed |
| Sell pet food and supplies. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 2.87 | exposed |
| Observe and caution children petting and feeding animals in designated areas to ensure the safety of humans and animals. | 21.7% | 28.3% | 50.0% | 4.27 | assisted |
| Advise pet owners on how to care for their pets' health. | 12.6% | 20.7% | 66.7% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Examine and observe animals to detect signs of illness, disease, or injury. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Feed and water animals according to schedules and feeding instructions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.84 | untouched |
| Provide treatment to sick or injured animals, or contact veterinarians to secure treatment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.66 | untouched |
| Mix food, liquid formulas, medications, or food supplements according to instructions, prescriptions, and knowledge of animal species. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Do facility laundry and clean, organize, maintain, and disinfect animal quarters, such as pens and stables, and equipment, such as saddles and bridles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Exercise animals to maintain their physical and mental health. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Perform animal grooming duties, such as washing, brushing, clipping, and trimming coats, cutting nails, and cleaning ears. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Clean and disinfect surgical equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Find homes for stray or unwanted animals. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Transfer animals between enclosures to facilitate breeding, birthing, shipping, or rearrangement of exhibits. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Adjust controls to regulate specified temperature and humidity of animal quarters, nurseries, or exhibit areas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.81 | untouched |
| Anesthetize and inoculate animals, according to instructions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.80 | untouched |
| Install, maintain, and repair animal care facility equipment, such as infrared lights, feeding devices, and cages. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
| Train animals to perform certain tasks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.73 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.