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Managers · code 1431

Sports, recreation and cultural centre managers

AI can schedule the classes and chase the budget. Running a busy leisure centre is still people management.

Seven of the nine tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, including budgets and promoting events. Keeping the place clean, safe and in good nick it barely touches.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Sports, recreation and cultural centre managers plan, organize and control the operations of establishments that provide sporting, artistic, theatrical and other recreational and amenity services. Tasks include - (a) planning and organizing the range and mix of entertainment, attractions, cultural activities and sports and fitness programmes to be offered by the centre; (b) ensuring that facilities are kept clean and in good condition; (c) keeping abreast of new trends and developments in the creative arts and arranging theatrical productions and performances by bands and orchestras; (d) advising on the facilities available and promoting publicity in relation to events, shows and activities; (e) checking and keeping custody of all cash receipts and making regular stock checks; (f) establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources; (g) planning and directing daily operations; (h) controlling the selection, supervision and performance of staff; (i) ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Amusement park manager - Billiards or pool hall manager - Casino manager - Cinema manager - Leisure centre manager - Riding school manager - Sports centre manager - Theatre manager - Theme park manager Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Art gallery manager - 1349 - Library manager - 1349 - Museum manager - 1349

  • recreational facilities manager
  • sport facility manager
  • cultural facilities manager

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

68 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Minimal Exposure

258 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 9 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 32.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 32.3 = 67.7.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

This job rates 30.4 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Sports, recreation and cultural centre managers 68

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Budgets and reporting.
  • Bookings and memberships.
  • Marketing and programming.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Leading staff.
  • Health and safety.
  • Dealing with the public and the community.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Data on how facilities are used.
  • Wellbeing and social prescribing programmes.
  • Energy costs and efficiency.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

41 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 72 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

30 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 16 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

30 How
hands-on
16 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 11 US jobs , so treat it as rough.

finger skill 23.2 · hand skill 15 · cramped spaces 10.1 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 44, against an average of 32. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 44

    Establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources

    Low
  2. 38

    Advising on the facilities available and promoting publicity in relation to events, shows and activities

    Low
  3. 36

    Planning and directing daily operations

    Low
  4. 35

    Checking and keeping custody of all cash receipts and making regular stock checks

    Low
  5. 35

    Keeping abreast of new trends and developments in the creative arts and arranging theatrical productions and performances by bands and orchestras

    Low
  6. 35

    Planning and organizing the range and mix of entertainment, attractions, cultural activities, and sports and fitness programmes to be offered by the centre

    Low
  7. 34

    Controlling the selection, supervision and performance of staff

    Low
  8. 24

    Ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations.

    Very Low
  9. 10

    Ensuring that facilities are kept clean and in good condition

    Very Low

9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
72
AI does it for you
41

Sidekick wins, by 31 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1491, 1499

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

51
49

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.65% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 9 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should sports and leisure centre managers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of it are changing. Budgets, promotion, operations, cash, programming and staffing are the most exposed tasks, all Low; health and safety and upkeep rate Very Low. Booking systems and analytics will take on more of the admin; leadership stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 30 jobs in the “Managers” family, averaging 64. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →