Operate office equipment.

Operate office equipment. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 13 occupations and seen in 21 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Operate office equipment. in Controlling Machines and Processes .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 21 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 9 (43%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 4 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.007% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Operate office machines, such as photocopiers and scanners, facsimile machines, voice mail systems, and personal computers. · Office Clerks, General · importance 4.6 · no direct exposure
• Operate typing, adding, calculating, or billing machines. · Billing and Posting Clerks · importance 4.5 · direct LLM exposure
• Operate 10-key calculators, typewriters, and copy machines to perform calculations and produce documents. · Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks · importance 4.5 · direct LLM exposure
• Operate office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and use word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records. · Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · importance 4.4 · direct LLM exposure
• Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials. · File Clerks · importance 4.4 · direct LLM exposure
• Place original copies in feed trays, feed originals into feed rolls, or position originals on tables beneath camera lenses. · Office Machine Operators, Except Computer · importance 4.3 · no direct exposure
• Operate office machines such as high speed business photocopiers, readers, scanners, addressing machines, stencil-cutting machines, microfilm readers or printers, folding and inserting machines, bursters, and binder machines. · Office Machine Operators, Except Computer · importance 4.3 · exposure with tools
• Make photocopies of correspondence, documents, and other printed matter. · Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Print and make copies of work. · Word Processors and Typists · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Load machines with materials such as blank paper or film. · Office Machine Operators, Except Computer · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Operate office equipment, such as fax machines, copiers, or phone systems and arrange for repairs when equipment malfunctions. · Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Load machines with statements, cancelled checks, or envelopes to prepare statements for distribution to customers or stuff envelopes by hand. · Billing and Posting Clerks · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Perform general office or clerical work, such as filing materials, operating duplicating machines, or running errands. · Couriers and Messengers · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Operate auxiliary machines such as collators, pad and tablet making machines, staplers, and paper punching, folding, cutting, and perforating machines. · Office Machine Operators, Except Computer · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Operate and maintain audio-visual equipment. · Library Assistants, Clerical · importance 3.7 · no direct exposure
• Make copies of correspondence or other printed material. · Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Retrieve documents stored in microfilm or microfiche and place them in viewers for reading. · File Clerks · importance 3.6 · exposure with tools
• Operate mechanized files that rotate to bring needed records to a particular location. · File Clerks · importance 3.6 · no direct exposure
• Load machines with required input or output media, such as paper, cards, disks, tape, or Braille media. · Data Entry Keyers · importance 3.5 · no direct exposure
• Operate and resupply printers and computers, changing print wheels or fluid cartridges, adding paper, and loading blank tapes, cards, or disks into equipment. · Word Processors and Typists · importance 3.4 · no direct exposure
• Duplicate records for distribution to branch offices. · New Accounts Clerks · importance 2.7 · direct LLM exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Office Clerks, General
• Billing and Posting Clerks
• Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
• File Clerks
• Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
• Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
• Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
• Word Processors and Typists
• Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
• Couriers and Messengers
• Library Assistants, Clerical
• Data Entry Keyers
• New Accounts Clerks

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-operate-office-equipment,
  title  = {Operate office equipment.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/operate-office-equipment}
}