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Clerical support workers · code 4132

Data entry clerks

AI can read the form and type it in. This is the most exposed job on the site.

AI could take a fair chunk of all five tasks: entering data, registering documents, checking and correcting entries and running calculating machines. It has the lowest score of all 427 jobs.

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

Data entry clerks enter coded, statistical, financial and other numerical data into electronic equipment, computerized databases, spreadsheets or other data repositories using a keyboard, mouse, or optical scanner, speech recognition software or other data entry tools. They enter data into mechanical and electronic devices to perform mathematical calculations. Tasks include - (a) receiving and registering invoices, forms, records and other documents for data capture; (b) entering numerical data, codes and text from source material into computer-compatible storage and processing devices; (c) verifying accuracy and completeness of data and correcting entered data, if needed; (d) operating bookkeeping and calculating machines; (e) importing and exporting data between different database systems and software. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Data entry operator - Data input clerk - Payment entry clerk

  • data entry clerk

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

30 / 100

Highly exposed to AI

AI could do much of the everyday work. The job doesn’t disappear, but in five years you might not recognise it.

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: Exposed: Gradient 4

427 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 5 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 70 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 70 = 30.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 4”: The ILO’s highest group: nearly every task is affected.

This job rates 30.6 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?

Data entry clerks 30

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.

  • Typing data in.
  • Registering documents.
  • Moving data between systems.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Checking what the machine got wrong.
  • Messy or handwritten documents.
  • Knowing when data doesn't make sense.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Data quality roles.
  • Document AI checking.
  • Data labelling for AI.

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: High

81 could do without you

It could take over a lot of this job on its own. It could help with 76 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

31 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 29 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

31 How
hands-on
29 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, matched to one US job .

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 25 · cramped spaces 19.5 · 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 74, against an average of 70. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 74

    Entering numerical data, codes and text from source material into computer-compatible storage and processing devices

    Medium
  2. 72

    Receiving and registering invoices, forms, records and other documents for data capture

    Medium
  3. 70

    Importing and exporting data between different database systems and software.

    Medium
  4. 69

    Verifying accuracy and completeness of data and correcting entered data, if needed

    Medium
  5. 66

    Operating bookkeeping and calculating machines

    Medium

5 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
76
AI does it for you
81

Replacement wins, by 5 points. That's rare.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 5321

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?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up 0.08% of all the conversations: a tiny slice. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

23
77

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.

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 data entry clerks be worried?

Short answer: expect big changes. Better to steer them than be steered by them.

Yes. Of all 427 ILO occupations, this one has the lowest score. Entering data, registering documents, moving data between systems, verifying data and operating calculating machines are all rated Medium. Document AI already does much of this, so the work that's left is checking and fixing.

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 29 jobs in the “Clerical support workers” family, averaging 47. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →