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Service and sales workers · code 5413

Prison guards

Prison guards watch over and maintain order among inmates of prisons, reformatories or penitentiaries. Tasks include - (a) searching arriving prisoners, putting their valuables in safekeeping, escorting prisoners to cells and locking them in; (b) making periodic inspection tours of cells and inspecting and maintaining the security of locks, windows, doors and gates; (c) supervising prisoners at work and meals, and during recreation periods; (d) observing the conduct and behaviour of prisoners to prevent disturbances and escapes; (e) patrolling prison areas to prevent escapes; (f) assisting with the implementation of rehabilitation programmes; (g) escorting prisoners in transit and during temporary leave. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Prison guard

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 57 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • prison officer
  • juvenile correctional officer

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

86.2
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 13.8 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 13.8 = 86.2

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

50.1
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

35.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 35.8 · hand skill 37.5 · cramped spaces 32.9 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7 Hands-on, helping and caring for others

Physical work where helping and caring for people is a big part of the job. For care work, whether a machine could do the movements is only half the question. The other half is whether anyone wants one to. The US data counts helping workmates too, so a few trades end up here.

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 50.1 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 21.5, while the average is 13.8. 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. 21.5

    Assisting with the implementation of rehabilitation programmes

    Very Low
  2. 16.5

    Supervising prisoners at work and meals, and during recreation periods

    Very Low
  3. 15

    Making periodic inspection tours of cells and inspecting and maintaining the security of locks, windows, doors and gates

    Very Low
  4. 11.5

    Escorting prisoners in transit and during temporary leave.

    Very Low
  5. 11.3

    Searching arriving prisoners, putting their valuables in safekeeping, escorting prisoners to cells and locking them in

    Very Low
  6. 10.8

    Observing the conduct and behaviour of prisoners to prevent disturbances and escapes

    Very Low
  7. 9.8

    Patrolling prison areas to prevent escapes

    Very 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 0.7-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
45
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 21 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 4421

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.1. This one is above that.