Will AI replace Couriers and Messengers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
16/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 29% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 7% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 32% of the work
What the job involves
Pick up and deliver messages, documents, packages, and other items between offices or departments within an establishment or directly to other business concerns, traveling by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, or public conveyance.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Plan and follow the most efficient routes for delivering goods.
Within reach(4)
- Receive messages or materials to be delivered, and information on recipients, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and delivery instructions, communicated via telephone, two-way radio, or in person.
- Record information, such as items received and delivered and recipients' responses to messages.
- Check with home offices after completed deliveries to confirm deliveries and collections and to receive instructions for other deliveries.
- Use telephone to deliver verbal messages.
Out of reach(11)
- Walk, ride bicycles, drive vehicles, or use public conveyances to reach destinations to deliver messages or materials.
- Sort items to be delivered according to the delivery route.
- Deliver messages and items, such as newspapers, documents, and packages, between establishment departments and to other establishments and private homes.
- Load vehicles with listed goods, ensuring goods are loaded correctly and taking precautions with hazardous goods.
- Deliver and pick up medical records, lab specimens, and medications to and from hospitals and other medical facilities.
and 6 more
Also called
Courier · Mail Carrier · Bicycle Messenger · Caller · Copy Messenger · Outside Deliverer · Delivery Driver · Driver
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