As of June 2026, Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders has an AI-exposure score of 54/100 (Elevated exposure) on the AI-Safe Careers index, blending O*NET tasks, the Anthropic Economic Index, the Penn/OpenAI study, and BLS data. This is an estimate of task exposure, not a prediction of job loss.
Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
More exposed than 45% of the roles we track. Median pay ~US$44,810. About 2,400 projected openings a year (BLS 2024–34 — growth plus replacement).
Pay & demand figures are US medians (BLS, in USD) — your local figures will differ. Your exposure score applies broadly.
How you compare to similar Production roles
Your tasks, by AI exposure
- Record production data, such as weight and amount of product processed, type of product, and time and temperature of processing.
- Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
- Clean equipment with steam, hot water, and hoses.
- Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
- Observe temperature, humidity, pressure gauges, and product samples and adjust controls, such as thermostats and valves, to maintain prescribed operating conditions for specific stages.
- Operate or tend equipment that roasts, bakes, dries, or cures food items such as cocoa and coffee beans, grains, nuts, and bakery products.
- Clear or dislodge blockages in bins, screens, or other equipment, using poles, brushes, or mallets.
- Signal coworkers to synchronize flow of materials.
- Open valves, gates, or chutes or use shovels to load or remove products from ovens or other equipment.
- Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
- Test products for moisture content, using moisture meters.
- Push racks or carts to transfer products to storage, cooling stations, or the next stage of processing.
- Smooth out products in bins, pans, trays, or conveyors, using rakes or shovels.
- Weigh or measure products, using scale hoppers or scale conveyors.
- Start conveyors to move roasted grain to cooling pans and agitate grain with rakes as blowers force air through perforated bottoms of pans.
- Read work orders to determine quantities and types of products to be baked, dried, or roasted.
- Install equipment, such as spray units, cutting blades, or screens, using hand tools.
- Fill or remove product from trays, carts, hoppers, or equipment, using scoops, peels, or shovels, or by hand.
- Observe flow of materials and listen for machine malfunctions, such as jamming or spillage, and notify supervisors if corrective actions fail.
No durable tasks identified for this role — its real, individually-assessed tasks consistently read as augmentable (95%).
Safer adjacent roles
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