Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers · code 6123

Apiarists and sericulturists

Sensors can weigh the hive. Handling the bees is still a beekeeper's job.

AI barely touches five of the seven tasks, including breeding and tending bees or silkworms and collecting what they make. Planning and arranging sales are mostly out of its reach too.

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

Apiarists and sericulturists plan, organize and perform operations to breed, raise and tend insects such as honey bees, silkworms and other species to produce honey, beeswax, silk and other products for sale or delivery to wholesale buyers, marketing organizations or at markets. Tasks include - (a) monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of insect products to produce, and planning and coordinating production accordingly; (b) purchasing insects and growing or purchasing feed and other supplies; (c) breeding, raising and tending insects and collecting their products; (d) renting or investing in, and maintaining and cleaning, buildings, machinery, equipment and structures; (e) storing and carrying out some processing of produce; (f) arranging the sale, purchase and transportation of stock, produce and supplies, and maintaining and evaluating records of farming activities; (g) training and supervising workers in production procedures, maintenance duties and health and safety precautions, and hiring and discharging workers and contractors. Examples of occupations classified here: - Apiarist - Sericulturist

bee breeder

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

78 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

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: Not Exposed

171 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 22.2 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 22.2 = 77.8.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 61 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Apiarists and sericulturists 78

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.

Production planning and records.
Sales and supply arrangements.
Hive monitoring with sensors.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Handling and caring for colonies.
Collecting honey or silk.
Judging colony health.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Hive sensors and monitoring apps.
Pollination services.
Protecting bees from disease and climate change.

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: Low

34 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 65 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

61 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

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.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 38 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

61 How
hands-on

38 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, less fiddly work

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, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 41 · hand skill 39.3 · cramped spaces 32.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4

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 42, against an average of 22. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

42
Monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of insect products to produce, and planning and coordinating production accordingly

Low
30
Arranging the sale, purchase and transportation of stock, produce and supplies, and maintaining and evaluating records of farming activities

Low
25
Training and supervising workers in production procedures, maintenance duties, and health and safety precautions, and hiring and discharging workers and contractors.

Very Low
18
Renting or investing in, and maintaining and cleaning buildings, machinery, equipment and structures

Very Low
17
Purchasing insects and growing or purchasing feed and other supplies

Very Low
12
Breeding, raising and tending insects and collecting their products

Very Low
12
Storing and carrying out some processing of produce

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 0.8-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: 65
AI does it for you: 34

Sidekick wins, by 31 points.

How good a match is this?

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

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1213

So, should beekeepers and silk farmers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of the business side are changing. Planning production and arranging sales are the most exposed tasks, both Low; tending insects and collecting products rate Very Low. Hive sensors and farm software help; beekeeping stays hands-on.

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 18 jobs in the “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers” family, averaging 84. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →