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Clerical support workers · code 4416

Personnel clerks

HR software already keeps the records. This job is changing fast.

AI could take a fair chunk of six of the seven tasks, including sending out job ads, keeping staff records and answering questions about entitlements. Processing applications and advising applicants is mostly out of its reach.

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

Personnel clerks maintain and update personnel records such as information on transfers and promotions, performance evaluations, employee leave taken and accumulated, salaries, qualifications and training. Tasks include - (a) updating information on employment history, salaries, performance evaluations, qualifications and training, and leave taken and accumulated; (b) initiating records for newly appointed workers and checking records for completeness; (c) processing applications for employment and promotions and advising applicants of results; (d) receiving and answering inquiries about employment entitlements and conditions; (e) sending out job applications and announcements of job openings and job examinations; (f) maintaining and updating manual and computerized filing and registration systems, and compiling and preparing reports and documents relating to personnel activities; (g) storing and retrieving personnel records and files on request. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Human resource assistant - Human resource clerk

  • human resources assistant

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

40 / 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

418 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 60.5 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 60.5 = 39.5.

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 22.9 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?

Personnel clerks 40

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.

  • Personnel records.
  • Job adverts.
  • Entitlement questions.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Sensitive staff queries.
  • Checking accuracy.
  • Supporting managers.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • HR self-service systems.
  • AI in recruitment.
  • Data protection.

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

76 could do without you

It could take over a lot of this job on its own. It could help with 73 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

23 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 9 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

23 How
hands-on
9 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 19.7 · hand skill 0 · cramped spaces 7 · 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 68, against an average of 61. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 68

    Sending out job applications and announcements of job openings and job examinations

    Medium
  2. 68

    Storing and retrieving personnel records and files on request.

    Medium
  3. 66

    Maintaining and updating manual and computerized filing and registration systems, and compiling and preparing reports and documents relating to personnel activities

    Medium
  4. 64

    Updating information on, employment history, salaries, performance evaluations, qualifications and training and leave taken and accumulated

    Medium
  5. 62

    Initiating records for newly appointed workers and checking records for completeness

    Medium
  6. 53

    Receiving and answering inquiries about employment entitlements and conditions

    Medium
  7. 44

    Processing applications for employment and promotions and advising applicants of results

    Low

7 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
73
AI does it for you
76

Replacement wins, by 3 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 5994

So, should HR assistants be worried?

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

Yes, this is one of the most exposed jobs. Job adverts, personnel records, filing, employee data, new starter records and entitlement questions are rated Medium; applications are Low. HR systems and AI take on most records and routine questions.

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 →