Will AI replace Crossing Guards and Flaggers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
23/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 38% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 46% of the work
What the job involves
Guide or control vehicular or pedestrian traffic at such places as streets, schools, railroad crossings, or construction sites.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(6)
- Monitor traffic flow to locate safe gaps through which pedestrians can cross streets.
- Report unsafe behavior of children to school officials.
- Direct traffic movement or warn of hazards, using signs, flags, lanterns, and hand signals.
- Record license numbers of vehicles disregarding traffic signals, and report infractions to appropriate authorities.
- Discuss traffic routing plans and control-point locations with superiors.
and 1 more
Out of reach(6)
- Direct or escort pedestrians across streets, stopping traffic, as necessary.
- Guide or control vehicular or pedestrian traffic at such places as street and railroad crossings and construction sites.
- Communicate traffic and crossing rules and other information to students and adults.
- Learn the location and purpose of street traffic signs within assigned patrol areas.
- Stop speeding vehicles to warn drivers of traffic laws.
and 1 more
Also called
Crossing Guard · School Crossing Guard · Crossing Tender · Flagger · Crossing Flagman · Crossing Gateman · Crossing Watchman · Draw Tender
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