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Service and sales workers · code 5132

Bartenders

Bartenders prepare, mix and serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks directly to customers over a bar or counter, or through waiters. Tasks include - (a) taking beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons; (b) preparing and serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at a bar; (c) washing used glassware, cleaning and maintaining bar service areas, tea- and coffee-making areas and equipment such as espresso machines; (d) collecting payment for sales, operating cash registers and balancing cash receipts; (e) tapping kegs and attaching supply lines; (f) assisting in keeping the bar properly stocked and arranging bottles and glasses; (g) checking identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol; (h) taking steps to limit problems related to excessive drinking, such as persuading customers to stop drinking, declining further service or ordering transportation; (i) mixing ingredients to prepare cocktails and other drinks; (j) serving snacks or other food items to customers at the bar. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Bartender Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Café manager - 1412 - Restaurant manager - 1412 - Waiter - 5131 Notes Operators of small cafés, restaurants and bars for whom the management and supervision of staff is not a significant component of the work are classified in Unit Groups 5120: Cooks, 5131: Waiters or 5132: Bartenders, depending on the main tasks performed.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 206 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • bartender

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

73.9
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 26.1 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 26.1 = 73.9

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

43.9
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

37.6
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 27 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

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.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 43.9 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.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 46.5, while the average is 26.1. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 46.5

    Taking beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons

    Low
  2. 41.3

    Collecting payment for sales, operating cash registers and balancing cash receipts

    Low
  3. 36.8

    Checking identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol

    Low
  4. 26.5

    Preparing and serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at a bar

    Low
  5. 24

    Assisting in keeping bar properly stocked and arranging bottles and glasses

    Very Low
  6. 24

    Taking steps to limit problems related to excessive drinking such, as persuading customers to stop drinking, declining further service and ordering transportation

    Very Low
  7. 23.5

    Serving snacks or other food items to customers at the bar.

    Very Low
  8. 16

    Mixing ingredients to prepare cocktails and other drinks

    Very Low
  9. 12.3

    Washing used glassware, cleaning and maintaining bar service areas, tea and coffee-making areas and equipment such as espresso machines

    Very Low
  10. 10.3

    Tapping kegs and attaching supply lines

    Very Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
49
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 25 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 4311

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.4. This one is below that.