Chef / Cook vs Truck Driver: which is more exposed to AI?
A 22-point gap separates these roles — Chef / Cook is the more defensible seat.
Truck Driver sits at 40% time-weighted AI exposure against 18% for Chef / Cook, a 22-point gap driven by the 10% of truck driver work time that current models can already substitute outright. Chef / Cook holds a larger human-critical core — 78% of the role's time sits in work like "food preparation and cooking" that models score poorly on. The two sit in different families — Hospitality & Food and Transportation — so any move between them is a career change, not a lateral step.
Seven dimensions, side by side.
What actually creates the gap.
Truck Drivers spend 10% of their time-weighted week on tasks a current model can produce end-to-end, against 0% for Chef / Cooks. The single largest contributor is "route planning and optimisation", graded at 82% 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.
- Food preparation and cooking4% · 48% time
- Kitchen team leadership8% · 16% time
- Guest interaction and feedback10% · 6% time
- Route planning and optimisation82% · 10% time
- Handling weather and road hazards8% · 6% time
- Urban and last-mile delivery14% · 18% time
- Loading, securing, and documenting cargo18% · 8% time
Both roles lean on manual, procedural, judgement — that is the part of your experience that travels intact. The real divide is creative: Chef / Cooks score 84 there against 18 for Truck Drivers, a 66-point spread. That is the gap you would actually have to close.
| DIMENSION | CHEF / COOK | TRUCK DRIVER |
|---|---|---|
| Creative | 84 | 18 |
| Social | 72 | 38 |
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career, and the capability profiles sit 31 points apart on average. Treat a move between them as a genuine career change with a retraining cost, not as a hedge against AI exposure.
Score your own exposure in 8 questions →Common questions.
Is Chef / Cook or Truck Driver more at risk from AI?
Truck Driver. It scores 40% time-weighted AI exposure against 18% for Chef / Cook — a 22-point gap. 10% of truck driver work time is already fully substitutable by current models, versus 0% for Chef / Cooks.
Which pays more, Chef / Cook or Truck Driver?
Chef / Cook, by roughly $6k at the median ($58k versus $52k). 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 chef / cook switch to being a truck driver?
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career, and the capability profiles sit 31 points apart on average. Treat a move between them as a genuine career change with a retraining cost, not as a hedge against AI exposure.
Which role is growing faster, Chef / Cook or Truck Driver?
Chef / Cook, at 9% projected ten-year growth versus 4% — a 5-point difference. Growth and AI exposure are separate signals: a role can grow in headcount while the content of the work is substantially rewritten.