AI exposure: Barbers
Provide barbering services, such as cutting, trimming, shampooing, and styling hair; trimming beards; or giving shaves.
Reading this score
computedAt 19.9% of weighted task load, Barbers sits at the 36th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 68.7% 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 20 tasks it averages 1.91 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 Order supplies, at 80.0%. The least is Measure, fit, and groom hairpieces, 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 19 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 20 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 13 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 | 1.23 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.91 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.59 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.95 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.13 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.98 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order supplies. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.89 | exposed |
| Keep card files on clientele, recording notes of work done, products used and fees charged after each visit. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.08 | exposed |
| Record services provided on cashiers' tickets or receive payment from customers. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.41 | exposed |
| Question patrons regarding desired services and haircut styles. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.86 | exposed |
| Recommend and sell lotions, tonics, or other cosmetic supplies. | 41.7% | 20.8% | 37.5% | 3.50 | exposed |
| Suggest treatments to alleviate hair problems. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 3.81 | assisted |
| Perform clerical and administrative duties such as keeping records, paying bills, and hiring and supervising personnel. | 33.7% | 24.6% | 41.7% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Stay informed of the latest styles and hair care techniques. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Identify hair problems, using microscopes and testing devices, or by sending clients' hair samples out to independent laboratories for analysis. | 7.0% | 9.6% | 83.3% | 3.30 | untouched |
| Clean and sterilize scissors, combs, clippers, and other instruments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.93 | untouched |
| Cut and trim hair according to clients' instructions or current hairstyles, using clippers, combs, hand-held blow driers, and scissors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.86 | untouched |
| Clean work stations and sweep floors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.76 | untouched |
| Drape and pin protective cloths around customers' shoulders. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.75 | untouched |
| Apply lather and shave beards or neck and temple hair contours, using razors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Shape and trim beards and moustaches, using scissors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Shampoo hair. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
| Curl, color, or straighten hair, using special chemical solutions and equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.70 | untouched |
| Provide face, neck, and scalp massages. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.54 | untouched |
| Provide skin care and nail treatments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.05 | untouched |
| Measure, fit, and groom hairpieces. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.78 | 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.