Will AI replace Firefighters?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
8/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 17% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 10% of the work
What the job involves
Control and extinguish fires or respond to emergency situations where life, property, or the environment is at risk. Duties may include fire prevention, emergency medical service, hazardous material response, search and rescue, and disaster assistance.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(3)
- Collaborate with other firefighters as a member of a firefighting crew.
- Prepare written reports that detail specifics of fire incidents.
- Inform and educate the public on fire prevention.
Out of reach(27)
- Rescue survivors from burning buildings, accident sites, and water hazards.
- Dress with equipment such as fire-resistant clothing and breathing apparatus.
- Respond to fire alarms and other calls for assistance, such as automobile and industrial accidents.
- Move toward the source of a fire, using knowledge of types of fires, construction design, building materials, and physical layout of properties.
- Administer first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation to injured persons or provide emergency medical care such as basic or advanced life support.
and 22 more
Also called
Wildland Firefighter · Fire Engineer · Fire Equipment Operator · Fireman · Fire Apparatus Engineer · Fire Engine Pump Operator · Fire Management Specialist · Fire Medic
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