Cashier vs Security Guard: which is more exposed to AI?
37 points apart. These are not comparable risk profiles.
Cashier sits at 72% time-weighted AI exposure against 35% for Security Guard, a 37-point gap driven by the 48% of cashier work time that current models can already substitute outright. Security Guard holds a larger human-critical core — 46% of the role's time sits in work like "de-escalate confrontations" that models score poorly on. The two sit in different families — Sales & Retail and Protective Services — so any move between them is a career change, not a lateral step.
Seven dimensions, side by side.
What actually creates the gap.
Cashiers spend 48% of their time-weighted week on tasks a current model can produce end-to-end, against 30% for Security Guards. The single largest contributor is "process card payments", graded at 90% and worth 10% of the role's time. That one task accounts for more of the gap than any difference in seniority, tooling, or industry.
- Process card payments90% · 10% time
- Scan and ring up items88% · 30% time
- Enter returns and receipts84% · 8% time
- Assist customers needing extra help12% · 4% time
- Resolve customer disputes26% · 8% time
- Spot-check fraud and theft30% · 4% time
- Write incident reports82% · 8% time
- Log visitor entries78% · 6% time
- Draft shift handoffs76% · 4% time
- Monitor camera feeds74% · 12% time
- De-escalate confrontations8% · 8% time
- Respond to incidents on site10% · 12% time
- Support emergency evacuations12% · 4% time
Both roles lean on procedural, social — that is the part of your experience that travels intact. The real divide is judgement: Security Guards score 52 there against 24 for Cashiers, a 28-point spread. That is the gap you would actually have to close.
| DIMENSION | CASHIER | SECURITY GUARD |
|---|---|---|
| Judgement | 24 | 52 |
| Manual | 52 | 74 |
| Procedural | 88 | 66 |
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career. With 17 points of average separation across capability dimensions, a move is realistic but not free: expect to deliberately rebuild the dimensions listed above rather than assume they carry.
Score your own exposure in 8 questions →Common questions.
Is Cashier or Security Guard more at risk from AI?
Cashier. It scores 72% time-weighted AI exposure against 35% for Security Guard — a 37-point gap. 48% of cashier work time is already fully substitutable by current models, versus 30% for Security Guards.
Which pays more, Cashier or Security Guard?
Security Guard, by roughly $8k at the median ($37k versus $29k). Note that the higher-paying role here is also the less AI-exposed one, which matters if you are weighing pay against durability.
Can a cashier switch to being a security guard?
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career. With 17 points of average separation across capability dimensions, a move is realistic but not free: expect to deliberately rebuild the dimensions listed above rather than assume they carry.
Which role is growing faster, Cashier or Security Guard?
Security Guard, at 2% projected ten-year growth versus -11% — a 13-point difference. Growth and AI exposure are separate signals: a role can grow in headcount while the content of the work is substantially rewritten.