{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/communications-equipment-operators-all-other/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Communications Equipment Operators, All Other", "soc_code": "43-2099", "category": "Office", "us_employment": 1200, "median_annual_wage": 54680 }, "verdict": "COOKED", "risk_resistance": 19, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 4, "embodiment": 4, "liability_shield": 2, "trust_premium": 5, "judgment_accountability": 4 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Patching a caller to an extension, keying a mic to relay a message, and typing a timestamped log entry are all operations software already performs end-to-end — PBX auto-attendants replaced the console, and speech-to-text relay handles the TRS work that once needed a human typist, leaving a 4 rather than a 10 because even the residual radio-net duties are scripted phrasebook exchanges rather than open-ended talk.", "embodiment": "The job is a headset, a console, and a status board in a heated room; the only physical element is being bodily present at a specific desk during a specific shift and occasionally reseating a cable or swapping a battery on a handheld, which keeps it just above pure remote screen work but nowhere near field service.", "liability_shield": "No state licence gates this work — the FCC Marine Radio Operator Permit or GMDSS ticket some maritime posts require is a fee-and-form credential, not a competency licence that makes you personally answerable for a routing error, so the vessel operator or utility carries any consequence.", "trust_premium": "Field crews and dispatch regulars come to recognise a voice and a cadence over the net, and that familiarity has some operational value, but callers reach whoever is on console and no customer chooses the employer because of who is wearing the headset.", "judgment_accountability": "Traffic is handled against posted call-down lists, priority codes, and phraseology standards, so the discretion available is picking which of a handful of prescribed escalation paths applies to an incoming report — real enough to matter during an outage, narrow enough that the decision tree is written on the wall." }, "rationale": "This residual category covers console and radio operators who connect calls, relay messages over two-way radio or intercom, monitor equipment status boards, and log traffic — work that automated call routing, IVR, and text-to-speech relay systems have been eating for two decades and that LLM-based agents now finish off. Employment is already down to about 1,200 nationally, which is itself the story: the tasks were absorbed into software, not redesigned around humans. The narrow survivors are operators embedded in safety-critical radio nets (maritime, aviation ground, utility outage rooms) where a human voice on the channel is procedurally required.", "outlook": "By the mid-2030s this title survives mainly as a handful of safety-mandated radio watch positions; general console and message-relay work will be fully software.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "FCC/FAA/Coast Guard rules that name a licensed human as the required voice on a safety net — e.g. retention or extension of the FCC GMDSS radio operator licence requirement for certain vessel classes, or FAA airport ground/ramp control procedures requiring a certificated human on frequency for movement-area clearances. A rule barring synthetic voice on licensed safety channels (analogous to FCC scrutiny of AI-generated voice under the TCPA) would pin the role to a named licensee.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 6 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift in utility outage and transit control rooms: routine status logging and dispatch relay goes to software, leaving the operator doing storm-mode net control — prioritising crew traffic, resolving conflicting field reports, improvising when SCADA and radio disagree. This tier genuinely exists in the survivor niches and does not automate at the same rate.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "NIMS/ICS-aligned staffing standards or utility PUC storm-response orders that designate a named human net controller as the accountable communications unit leader during declared emergencies, with post-event review of their calls.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Requirement for on-site presence in hardened facilities during emergencies — some utility and port operations plans already forbid remote-only staffing of the radio room when comms links may fail, forcing a body in the chair with a backup transceiver.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "At 1,200 workers this is already the residue of a completed displacement; even every lever firing protects a niche of a few hundred safety-net positions rather than restoring the occupation. Trust premium has no route — buyers of message relay have never paid extra for a human voice, only regulators have required one." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 1980, "wage": 41480 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 2100, "wage": 41050 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 3240, "wage": 42790 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 3070, "wage": 46680 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 1340, "wage": 47000 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 1240, "wage": 46180 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 1380, "wage": 49310 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 1390, "wage": 49910 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 1200, "wage": 54680 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -39.4, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }