AI exposure: First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in landscaping or groundskeeping activities. Work may involve reviewing contracts to ascertain service, machine, and workforce requirements; answering inquiries from potential customers regarding methods, material, and price ranges; and preparing estimates according to labor, material, and machine costs.
Reading this score
computed34.1% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers at the 59th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.1 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 28 tasks it averages 1.64 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Maintain required records, at 86.7%. The least is Install or maintain landscaped areas, performing tasks such as removing snow, pouring cement..., at 0.0%. A gap of 86.7% 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 building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 8 roles in the group is 10.8%, and only 1 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 28 tasks, 15 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 11 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
28 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain required records, such as personnel information or project records. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.82 | exposed |
| Prepare or maintain required records, such as work activity or personnel reports. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Perform administrative duties, such as authorizing leaves or processing time sheets. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.73 | exposed |
| Schedule work for crews, depending on work priorities, crew or equipment availability, or weather conditions. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Answer inquiries from current or prospective customers regarding methods, materials, or price ranges. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.62 | exposed |
| Negotiate with customers regarding fees for landscaping, lawn service, or groundskeeping work. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Review contracts or work assignments to determine service, machine, or workforce requirements for jobs. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.71 | exposed |
| Establish and enforce operating procedures and work standards that will ensure adequate performance and personnel safety. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Confer with other supervisors to coordinate work activities with those of other departments or units. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.72 | exposed |
| Confer with managers or landscape architects to develop plans or schedules for landscaping maintenance or improvement. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.68 | exposed |
| Prepare service estimates based on labor, material, and machine costs and maintain budgets for individual projects. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.87 | exposed |
| Recommend changes in working conditions or equipment used to increase crew efficiency. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.65 | exposed |
| Order the performance of corrective work when problems occur and recommend procedural changes to avoid such problems. | 33.3% | 29.2% | 37.5% | 3.68 | exposed |
| Train workers in tasks such as transplanting or pruning trees or shrubs, finishing cement, using equipment, or caring for turf. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Design or supervise the installation of sprinkler systems, calculating water pressure, or valve and pipe coverage needs. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.35 | exposed |
| Investigate work-related complaints to verify problems and to determine responses. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.73 | assisted |
| Perform personnel-related activities, such as hiring workers, evaluating staff performance, or taking disciplinary actions when performance problems occur. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.82 | assisted |
| Identify diseases or pests affecting landscaping and order appropriate treatments. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Inventory supplies of tools, equipment, or materials to ensure that sufficient supplies are available and items are in usable condition. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.84 | untouched |
| Tour grounds, such as parks, botanical gardens, cemeteries, or golf courses, to inspect conditions of plants and soil. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Direct activities of workers who perform duties, such as landscaping, cultivating lawns, or pruning trees and shrubs. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.17 | untouched |
| Direct or assist workers engaged in the maintenance or repair of equipment, such as power tools or motorized equipment. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.71 | untouched |
| Monitor project activities to ensure that instructions are followed, deadlines are met, and schedules are maintained. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Inspect completed work to ensure conformance to specifications, standards, and contract requirements. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Plant or maintain vegetation through activities such as mulching, fertilizing, watering, mowing, or pruning. | 5.6% | 2.8% | 91.7% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Direct or perform mixing or application of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
| Provide workers with assistance in performing duties as necessary to meet deadlines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.79 | untouched |
| Install or maintain landscaped areas, performing tasks such as removing snow, pouring cement curbs, or repairing sidewalks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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 | 2.14 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.30 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.05 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.82 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.64 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.18 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
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.