Often handed to AI
Task areas most often handled directively in observed AI conversations — candidates to delegate with light review.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others. · 10.6%
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
Occupation · SOC 25-1123.00
Teach courses in English language and literature, including linguistics and comparative literature. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
Also called: English Instructor · English Professor · Instructor · Professor · Assistant Professor · Associate Professor · Creative Writing Professor · Humanities Professor · Lecturer · Literature Professor · Adjunct English Instructor · Adjunct Instructor
Job family: Educational Instruction and Library Occupations
Take this to your AI
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-25-1123-00/context.md directly.
AI work map
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Use as a copilot
Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.
- Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class. · 273.5%
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers. · 25.7%
- Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. · 23.7%
Keep a human in the loop
Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.
- Select and obtain materials and supplies such as textbooks. · 100.0% need a human
- Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students. · 100.0% need a human
- Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues. · 100.0% need a human
Skills it runs on
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Market signal
Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
- About average employment outlook (0.0% by 2034)
- 5,100 openings/yr
- High AI exposure
- Observed AI use leans augmentation
- Median pay $78,270/yr
- Can largely be done remotely (teleworkable)
91st-percentile task overlap — yet about 5,100 openings a year (+0% projected, BLS), and observed AI use leans 6322% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →
AI & job outlook
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Exposure to current AI
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) High | 97th | 1.4 | |
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) Moderate | 65th | 0.8 | |
| AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) High | 94th | 0.3 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.3), with simple added tooling (β 0.5), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.8). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
Most of this job's tasks can be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman), which tends to track with higher digital and AI exposure.
How AI is actually used in this job
Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.
| Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class. | 62.1% | |
| Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction. | 17.8% | |
| Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers. | 17.5% | |
| Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences. | 10.5% | |
| Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media. | 9.6% | |
| Write original literary pieces. | 9.0% |
Job outlook
Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.
| Outlook | About average · 0.0% by 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | 5,100 |
| Employment 2024 → 2034 | 72,200 → 72,200 |
“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.
Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient
The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary sits at the 70th percentile of 427
occupations on the global GenAI task-exposure gradient
— exposure rose from 2023 to 2025. Each dot is one occupation; the
ringed one is this work. Exposure is task overlap, not automation or jobs lost.
37% mean task exposure (2025)
70th percentile of 427 placed occupations
+5 pts shift 2023 → 2025
| International occupation (ISCO-08) | Task exposure (2025) | Most tasks fall in |
|---|---|---|
| University and Higher Education Teachers · 2310 | 37% | Minimal |
Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.
Working with AI in this job
How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.
| Augmentation vs. automation | 63.2% working with AI · 34.8% handed to AI |
| Most common way people use AI here | Iteration · you and AI go back and forth |
| Typical AI autonomy | 4.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently |
| Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) | 12.0% |
What people delegate to AI
The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.
| Task | How | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class. | Iteration | 273.5% |
| Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers. | Validation | 25.7% |
| Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. | Iteration | 23.7% |
| Provide assistance to students in college writing centers. | Iteration | 17.8% |
| Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media. | Learning | 13.9% |
| Provide professional consulting services to government or industry. | Iteration | 12.8% |
| Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others. | Directive | 10.6% |
| Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as poetry, novel structure, and translation and adaptation. | Learning | 6.8% |
Where a human is still needed
Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.
| Select and obtain materials and supplies such as textbooks. | 100.0% | |
| Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students. | 100.0% | |
| Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues. | 100.0% | |
| Participate in campus and community events. | 100.0% | |
| Write grant proposals to procure external research funding. | 100.0% | |
| Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues. | 100.0% |
What people most often hand AI here
Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.
-
Help me assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class.From: Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class. · 273.5% of measured AI use · task iteration
-
Help me evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.From: Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers. · 25.7% of measured AI use · validation
-
Help me advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.From: Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. · 23.7% of measured AI use · task iteration
-
Help me provide assistance to students in college writing centers.From: Provide assistance to students in college writing centers. · 17.8% of measured AI use · task iteration
Tasks
All 33 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
- Teach writing or communication classes. Core · importance 4.8
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers. Core · importance 4.8
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts. Core · importance 4.7
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions. Core · importance 4.7
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records. Core · importance 4.5
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction. Core · importance 4.4
- Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class. Core · importance 4.2
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as poetry, novel structure, and translation and adaptation. Core · importance 4.2
- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences. Core · importance 4.1
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others. Core · importance 4.0
- Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students. Core · importance 4.0
- Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media. Core · importance 4.0
- Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues. Core · importance 3.9
- Teach classes using online technology. Core · importance 3.9
- Schedule courses. Core · importance 3.8
- Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues. Core · importance 3.7
- Write letters of recommendation for students. Core · importance 3.7
- Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work. Supplemental · importance 3.6
- Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks. Core · importance 3.6
- Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head. Supplemental · importance 3.6
- Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues. Core · importance 3.6
- Recruit, train, and supervise department personnel, such as faculty and student writing instructors. Supplemental · importance 3.4
- Participate in campus and community events. Core · importance 3.4
- Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities. Core · importance 3.3
- Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments. Core · importance 3.3
- Participate in cultural and literary activities, such as traveling abroad and attending performing arts events. Core · importance 3.2
- Provide assistance to students in college writing centers. Supplemental · importance 3.1
- Conduct staff performance evaluations. Supplemental · importance 2.9
- Write original literary pieces. Supplemental · importance 2.8
- Act as advisers to student organizations. Supplemental · importance 2.7
- Write grant proposals to procure external research funding. Supplemental · importance 2.7
- Review manuscripts for publication in professional journals. Supplemental · importance 2.7
- Provide professional consulting services to government or industry. Supplemental · importance 2.3
Work activities
- Tutor students who need extra assistance.
- Attend training sessions or professional meetings to develop or maintain professional knowledge.
- Write articles, books or other original materials in area of expertise.
- Train staff members.
- Direct activities of subordinates.
- Evaluate performance of educational staff.
- Teach online courses.
- Teach classes in area of specialization.
- Teach humanities courses at the college level.
- Schedule instructional activities.
- Prepare staff schedules or work assignments.
- Prepare activity or work schedules.
- Evaluate student work.
- Write reports or evaluations.
- Proofread documents, records, or other files to ensure accuracy.
- Edit written materials.
- Edit documents.
- Guide class discussions.
- Develop instructional materials.
- Maintain student records.
- Evaluate effectiveness of educational programs.
- Develop instructional objectives.
- Administer tests to assess educational needs or progress.
- Prepare tests.
- Advise students on academic or career matters.
- Stay informed about current developments in field of specialization.
- Select educational materials or equipment.
- Order instructional or library materials or equipment.
- Research topics in area of expertise.
- Serve on institutional or departmental committees.
- Plan community programs or activities for the general public.
- Promote educational institutions or programs.
- Perform student enrollment or registration activities.
- Compile specialized bibliographies or lists of materials.
- Supervise student research or internship work.
- Direct department activities.
- Write grant proposals.
- Advise educators on curricula, instructional methods, or policies.
Knowledge, skills & abilities
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Abilities
| Written Comprehension | 4.9 | |
| Oral Expression | 4.6 | |
| Oral Comprehension | 4.3 | |
| Written Expression | 4.3 | |
| Speech Clarity | 4.0 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 3.9 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 3.9 | |
| Near Vision | 3.5 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 3.4 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.4 | |
| Fluency of Ideas | 3.3 | |
| Originality | 3.3 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.1 |
Essential skills
| Reading Comprehension | 4.8 | |
| Writing | 4.3 | |
| Speaking | 4.1 | |
| Active Listening | 4.0 | |
| Learning Strategies | 4.0 | |
| Active Learning | 3.9 | |
| Critical Thinking | 3.8 | |
| Monitoring | 3.6 |
Knowledge
Transferable skills
| Instructing | 4.6 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.4 | |
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.3 | |
| Social Perceptiveness | 3.1 | |
| Service Orientation | 3.1 | |
| Time Management | 3.1 | |
| Coordination | 3.0 | |
| Persuasion | 3.0 | |
| Negotiation | 3.0 |
Skills in demand
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
Showing the top 40 of 43.
Tools & technology
Work context
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
How to get in
- Job zone
- Zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
- Education
- Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
- Typical entry-level education
- Doctoral or professional degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
- Related experience
- Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
- Preparation level
- SVP (8.0 and above) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.
What to study: Education , English Language and Literature/Letters , Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics , Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Education of current workers
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| Doctoral Degree | 58.4% | |
| Master's Degree | 30.4% | |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 9.6% | |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 1.3% | |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.3% |
Interests & work styles
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)
| Social | 7.0 | |
| Investigative | 4.8 | |
| Artistic | 4.2 | |
| Conventional | 3.5 |
Interest areas
| Teaching/Education | 6.9 | |
| Humanities | 6.8 | |
| Public Speaking | 5.7 | |
| Professional Advising | 5.0 | |
| Creative Writing | 4.6 | |
| Social Science | 3.9 | |
| Social Service | 3.7 | |
| Media | 3.1 |
Work styles
| Dependability | 6.0 | |
| Intellectual Curiosity | 5.0 | |
| Achievement Orientation | 4.0 | |
| Social Orientation | 3.0 |
Wages & employment
U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)
| 10th percentile | $47,540 |
| 25th percentile | $59,780 |
| Median (50th) | $78,270 |
| 75th percentile | $103,730 |
| 90th percentile | $154,800 |
| People employed | 59,590 |
Industries that employ this occupation
Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.
| Industry | Workers | National median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Educational Services · Sector | 59,590 | $78,270 |
Where this work is most concentrated
Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).
| Industry | Concentration | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Educational Services · Sector | 11.3× | 59,590 |
Related occupations
Part of the Education career cluster.
- Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1062.00 Compare →
- Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1124.00 Compare →
- Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1126.00 Compare →
- Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1067.00 Compare →
- History Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1125.00 Compare →
- Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1121.00 Compare →
- Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1061.00 Compare →
- Communications Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1122.00 Compare →
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1081.00 Compare →
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary · 25-1082.00 Compare →
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education · 25-2031.00 Compare →
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education · 25-2022.00 Compare →
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
What you can do with this
Options the data surfaces for English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Skills that travel
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Adjacent roles
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
Paths in
How people typically prepare for this work.
- Doctoral or professional degree · typical entry level
- Job zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed · preparation tier
- Education · field of study
- English Language and Literature/Letters · field of study
Zoom out
On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 70th percentile of 427 international occupations.
Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary show 91st-percentile AI task overlap — and about 5,100 annual U.S. openings
- English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary rank in the 91st percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
- The occupation is projected to see about 5,100 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- BLS projects employment to be about average (0%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- Median annual pay is $78,270, across about 59,590 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
- Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 63% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census.2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2
Copy the whole kit
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary show 91st-percentile AI task overlap — and about 5,100 annual U.S. openings • English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary rank in the 91st percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • The occupation is projected to see about 5,100 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • BLS projects employment to be about average (0%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • Median annual pay is $78,270, across about 59,590 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024)) • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 63% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) Source: Singulariki — "English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-1123-00 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
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
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
- Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
- AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans academic
- ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025 International Labour Organization
- IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022 Institute for Structural Research (IBS)
- Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome academic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Plain
Singulariki. "English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-1123-00
APA
Singulariki. (2026). English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-1123-00
BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-25-1123-00,
title = {English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-1123-00}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.