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Service and sales workers · code 5161

Astrologers, fortune-tellers and related workers

Astrologers, fortune-tellers and related workers recount past and predict future events in persons’ lives by practicing astrology, on the basis of characteristics of the clients’ palms, samples of playing cards drawn or other techniques. Tasks include - (a) casting horoscopes of individuals at birth or later to recount past and forecast future events and conditions of their lives; (b) interpreting characteristics of clients’ palms, samples of playing cards, position of tea leaves or coffee remnants in a cup, shapes and patterns of bones of dead animals, etc.; (c) forecasting future events on the basis of these interpretations; (d) determining auspicious times for various human activities such as inaugurations, marriages, journeys and religious and other ceremonies; (e) giving warnings and advice on possible courses of action; (f) advising individuals on precautions to be taken to avoid evil influences. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Astrologer - Fortune-teller - Numerologist - Palmist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Witch doctor - 3230 - Faith healer - 3413

A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 238 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • psychic
  • fortune teller
  • medium
  • astrologer

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

70.3
Holds up
against AI Minimal Exposure

AI could take on 29.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 29.7 = 70.3

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

61
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

31.9
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 39.3 · hand skill 37.4 · cramped spaces 19 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 61 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 58.5, while the average is 29.7. 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. 58.5

    Forecasting future events on the basis of these interpretations

    Medium
  2. 38.5

    Giving warnings and advice on possible courses of action

    Low
  3. 25

    Determining auspicious times for various human activities such as inaugurations, marriages, journeys and religious and other ceremonies

    Low
  4. 23.5

    Casting horoscopes of individuals at birth or later to recount past and forecast future events and conditions of their lives

    Very Low
  5. 17.5

    Advising individuals on precautions to be taken to avoid evil influences.

    Very Low
  6. 15

    Interpreting characteristics of clients’ palms, samples of playing cards, position of tea leaves or coffee remnants in a cup, shapes and patterns of bones of dead animals, etc.

    Very Low

6 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 this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
40
AI does it for you
25

Helping wins by 15 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 4518

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.5. This one is below that.