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.

The occupation of "Telephone Operators" has a notably high automation risk of 76.1%, with a base risk calculated at 76.8%. This heightened susceptibility to automation is primarily due to the nature of the occupation’s main tasks, which are highly routine, rule-based, and process-driven. For example, three of the top tasks—observing signal lights on switchboards and dialing or pressing buttons, operating telephone systems to manage calls, and listening to requests to provide information from directories—are all procedural and can be efficiently replicated by modern computer systems and telephony software. Advancements in telecommunications technology have enabled automated systems and AI-powered virtual assistants to handle these core tasks faster, more consistently, and without the need for human intervention. As such, the basic operational duties of telephone operators are particularly vulnerable to replacement by machines. Despite this, there are still some aspects of the telephone operator role that remain more automation-resistant, although they do not account for a large proportion of the work. The most resistant tasks include promoting company products and services, maintaining records of calls placed and toll charges, and providing relay services for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. These functions often require social perceptiveness, adaptability, and tailored communication, especially when handling sensitive or specialized customer needs. Although automation technologies are improving, current systems still struggle to convincingly and empathetically promote services or adapt in real time to users who require personalized relay communications, thereby providing a modest buffer against total automation for these specific activities. The primary bottleneck skills that limit the full automation of telephone operator roles center around originality, which is measured at very low levels: only 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively. Originality refers to the ability to develop new ideas, adapt communication styles, and deal innovatively with uncommon situations. Since originality is minimally required in this occupation, most tasks do not benefit from creative or adaptive human input and can, therefore, be standardized and replicated by machines. This lack of a significant demand for originality underlines why so much of the occupation’s work is automatable—there is very little in the day-to-day responsibilities of telephone operators that cannot be codified, programmed, or handled by artificial intelligence and automated call-routing systems.