Will AI replace Baristas?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
14/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 27% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 14% of the work
What the job involves
Prepare or serve specialty coffee or other beverages. Serve food such as baked goods or sandwiches to patrons.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(3)
- Describe menu items to customers, or suggest products that might appeal to them.
- Provide customers with product details, such as coffee blend or preparation descriptions.
- Create signs to advertise store products or events.
Out of reach(16)
- Clean or sanitize work areas, utensils, or equipment.
- Receive and process customer payments.
- Prepare or serve hot or cold beverages, such as coffee, espresso drinks, blended coffees, or teas.
- Take customer orders and convey them to other employees for preparation.
- Clean service or seating areas.
and 11 more
Also called
Bobarista · Catering Barista · Cafe Barista · Coffee Bar Attendant · Coffee Barista · Coffee Brewer · Coffee Maker · Coffee Shop Attendant
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics