AI exposure: Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Assist faculty or other instructional staff in postsecondary institutions by performing instructional support activities, such as developing teaching materials, leading discussion groups, preparing and giving examinations, and grading examinations or papers.
Reading this score
computed33.0% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary at the 57th 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 20 tasks it averages 1.84 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 Schedule and maintain regular office hours to meet with students, at 80.0%. The least is Attend lectures given by the supervising instructor, 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 educational instruction and library occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 42.4% across the group's 62 roles, with 49 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, 13 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 6 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
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule and maintain regular office hours to meet with students. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.69 | exposed |
| Develop teaching materials, such as syllabi, visual aids, answer keys, supplementary notes, or course Web sites. | 76.7% | 23.3% | 0.0% | 4.18 | exposed |
| Order or obtain materials needed for classes. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.40 | exposed |
| Provide assistance to faculty members or staff with laboratory or field research. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Provide instructors with assistance in the use of audiovisual equipment. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.12 | exposed |
| Assist faculty members or staff with student conferences. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 2.98 | exposed |
| Complete laboratory projects prior to assigning them to students so that any needed modifications can be made. | 46.3% | 37.0% | 16.7% | 3.78 | exposed |
| Evaluate and grade examinations, assignments, or papers, and record grades. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Inform students of the procedures for completing and submitting class work, such as lab reports. | 42.5% | 32.5% | 25.0% | 4.08 | exposed |
| Prepare or proctor examinations. | 35.4% | 27.1% | 37.5% | 3.89 | exposed |
| Meet with supervisors to discuss students' grades or to complete required grade-related paperwork. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.73 | exposed |
| Notify instructors of errors or problems with assignments. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.06 | exposed |
| Tutor or mentor students who need additional instruction. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.87 | exposed |
| Arrange for supervisors to conduct teaching observations and provide feedback about teaching performance. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 3.31 | assisted |
| Teach undergraduate-level courses. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.63 | untouched |
| Demonstrate use of laboratory equipment and enforce laboratory rules. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Lead discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory sections. | 9.2% | 15.8% | 75.0% | 4.28 | untouched |
| Return assignments to students in accordance with established deadlines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Copy and distribute classroom materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.35 | untouched |
| Attend lectures given by the supervising instructor. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | 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 | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.40 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.77 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.84 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.16 | 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.