Will AI replace Childcare Workers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
34/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 51% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 4% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 46% of the work
What the job involves
Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Create developmentally appropriate lesson plans.
Within reach(10)
- Communicate with children's parents or guardians about daily activities, behaviors, and related issues.
- Identify signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring them to parents' or guardians' attention.
- Read to children and teach them simple painting, drawing, handicrafts, and songs.
- Discipline children and recommend or initiate other measures to control behavior, such as caring for own clothing and picking up toys and books.
- Instruct children in health and personal habits, such as eating, resting, and toilet habits.
and 5 more
Out of reach(13)
- Maintain a safe play environment.
- Observe and monitor children's play activities.
- Sanitize toys and play equipment.
- Organize and store toys and materials to ensure order in activity areas.
- Support children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts.
and 8 more
Also called
Child Care Assistant · Child Care Sitter · Child Monitor · Children's Institution Attendant · Day Care Worker · Nursery School Attendant · Child Care Worker · Child Caregiver
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