Will AI replace Substitute Teachers, Short-Term?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
7/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 14% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 5% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 15% of the work
What the job involves
Teach students on a short-term basis as a temporary replacement for a regular classroom teacher, typically using the regular teacher's lesson plan.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Operate equipment such as computers or audio-visual aids to supplement presentations.
Within reach(3)
- Take class attendance and maintain attendance records.
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, or assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Grade students' assignments and exams.
Out of reach(14)
- Answer students' questions.
- Enforce school and class rules to maintain order in the classroom.
- Follow lesson plans designed by absent teachers.
- Distribute or collect tests or homework assignments.
- Distribute teaching materials, such as textbooks, workbooks, papers, and pencils, to students.
and 9 more
Also called
Sub Teacher (Substitute Teacher) · Sub Teacher · Building Sub (Building Substitute) · Building Sub Teacher (Building Substitute Teacher) · HS Sub Teacher (High School Substitute Teacher) · Pre-School Sub Teacher (Pre-School Substitute Teacher) · Short-Term Sub Teacher (Short-Term Substitute Teacher) · Sub (Substitute)
Related jobs
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors41/100
- Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education30/100
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education35/100
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education32/100
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School30/100
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