# Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers

> Perform various tasks to arrange and direct individual funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of body to mortuary, interviewing family or other authorized person to arrange details, selecting pallbearers, aiding with the selection of officials for religious rites, and providing transportation for mourners.

- **SOC code:** 39-4031.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-4031-00
- **Also known as:** Funeral Arranger, Funeral Counselor, Funeral Director, Mortician, Funeral Arrangement Director, Funeral Family Service Assistant, Funeral Location Manager, Funeral Prearrangement Counselor
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Oversee the preparation and care of the remains of people who have died.
- Obtain information needed to complete legal documents, such as death certificates or burial permits.
- Perform embalming duties, as necessary.
- Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.
- Remove deceased remains from place of death.
- Contact cemeteries to schedule the opening and closing of graves.
- Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services.
- Close caskets and lead funeral corteges to churches or burial sites.
- Provide information on funeral service options, products, or merchandise, and maintain a casket display area.
- Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.
- Direct preparations and shipment of bodies for out-of-state burial.
- Discuss and negotiate prearranged funerals with clients.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Coordination _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_
- Speech Clarity _(ability)_
- Administrative _(knowledge)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Access _(Specialized Skill)_
- Psychology _(Specialized Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Access _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Salesforce software _(hot technology)_
- Belmar & Associates Mortware
- Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
- Custom Data Systems Sterling Management Software
- FPA Software MACCS
- FuneralKiosk

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 32nd percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 43rd percentile (Moderate) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 27th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 33rd percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 3.1% growth (About average); 3.2k annual openings; 27.5k → 28.4k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $49,800; 25,700 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 50% automation, 30% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** directive.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends. _(0.6% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-4031-00_