Bartenders

Moderate Risk
47%

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Vote Comments (20)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
49%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
44%
(Moderate Risk, Based on 366 votes)
Average: 47%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
8.8%
by year 2033
WAGES
$31,510
or $15.15 per hour
Volume
711,140
as of 2023
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
5.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

49% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Manual Dexterity

  • Persuasion

  • Finger Dexterity

User poll

44% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 49% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Bartenders will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Bartenders' job openings is expected to rise 8.8% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Bartenders' was $31,510, or $15 per hour

'Bartenders' were paid 34.4% lower than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 711,140 people employed as 'Bartenders' within the United States.

This represents around 0.47% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 213 people are employed as 'Bartenders'.

Job description

Mix and serve drinks to patrons, directly or through waitstaff.

SOC Code: 35-3011.00

Comments (20)

Leave a comment
Anon
31 Jan 2026 04:37
I can see a bar that's automated existing, but not outside the odd novelty place with a ton of money. Customers want interaction, to talk, and bartenders don't just serve drinks, they also need to keep the bar clean, restock, sometimes take phone calls, and automating all of that would again, be possible, but by the time you've done it, you've poured so much money into it you may as well have hired three people to do it. I think there's a lot of jobs that can be automated easily in theory, but in practice, costs and what the job entails would make automating it pointless. It'll be the uber rich enjoying the robot maids.
Tommy (Moderate)
12 Jun 2025 12:09
I feel like it will be done by a machine more accurately and with less errors
Memer (No chance)
06 Mar 2025 05:58
The job is about customer connection and the ability to understand a person’s taste, something that is extremely if not impossible to automate.
Bill bob (Moderate)
08 Nov 2024 19:38
Tech moves so fast and why pay a wait staff when you could buy AI Bots that dont get sick don't need personal days don't need tips don't need wages food prices go down
TLB (Low)
06 Mar 2024 21:21
There will always be a demand for human interaction. They can go ahead and automate the service well though.
Chris (Low)
22 Apr 2023 16:21
While people could buy a beer or a mixed drink from a vending machine, I don't think that is what people are looking for when they go to the bar. Maybe at a club where something else is the main focus.
Anthony (No chance)
08 Mar 2022 08:39
The hospitality skills that bartenders use on a daily basis are simply irreplaceable by machines. It's possible that SOME establishments could automate certain aspects of the process but I can't see a world where bar staff are eliminated entirely. People come to bars to socialize, and for many people, particularly to socialize with the staff.
Evgo The Bartender (No chance)
10 Aug 2021 06:39
Unless AI becomes so advanced that it can feel emotions, there is no way a robot can replace a human being, as a bartender. A bartender is much more than a cocktail machine, the bartender is the face of the establishment, and you cannot automate the experience of sitting and chatting with a bartender.
Jonny
01 Jul 2024 17:54
Imagine not having to wait forever to get another round of drinks, automation of that job would be great!
Brisn (Highly likely)
13 Jun 2021 06:22
Bartenders are slow to make drinks when lines are long which leads to upset and lost customers. AI and automated bartending processes won’t be hard to develop to replace this job and serve customer to make them happier through a quicker service while also making bar owners cut down on costs and get more repeat customers.
ec (Low)
25 Apr 2021 23:21
A robot can pour a drink but its going to be a while until they can listen to you talk about your problems
Anonymous bartender (Low)
25 Dec 2020 07:27
Main reason why bartenders will NOT be replaced by robots: mixing and serving the cocktails are only a small portion of the job. The social interaction is the most important part about being a good bartender. Can the robot be a little more efficient or faster? Sure. The hourly labor costs of a bartender does not warrant a need by any owner to replace a human with a robot. The vast majority of most bartenders’ income is from tips. Owners of companies who would find it reasonable to replace humans with robots are humans in different industries where social interaction isn’t the biggest part of the job, who have a higher hourly rate.
Tristan (Low)
23 Apr 2020 17:08
Many people have pointed out many reasons why this is unlikely: bartenders aren't expensive to begin with, bartenders provide social interaction that can't be raplaced by a robot, not enough big financial interest in the bar industry, etc. There are other things that bartenders do that can't be automated, like being de facto security in bars with no bouncers. You wouldn't expect a robot to be able to identify a drunk and disorderly customer and eject them from the bar any time soon; even if the technology is there the legality of it seems lightyears away.
Andria (Moderate)
11 Feb 2020 19:23
It wouldn't be that hard to have all alcoholic beverages available for use from a robot. It's very easy to program the recipes into a robot as well so it will know exactly how to make it; even faster than humans as we would have to look up an unknown recipe, taking longer than a robot could look one up.
Aidan
14 Sep 2019 06:54
There isn't really a NEED to automate a bartender. They aren't paid that much to begin with, so automating them wouldn't render them all that cost effective. I also doubt the efficiency of getting your drink to begin with would fluctuate all that much. With current technology and the limits of our ability to replicate human dexterity, it's unlikely that the speed and accuracy of a bartender could have any competition to begin with. Think about the customer service aspect as well, who wants to be served by a lifeless robot that just scans you as another customer to serve?
Bell (Low)
16 Aug 2019 20:06
I could see big chains with money doing this, especially restaurants, or places that have less human contact behind the bar. Smaller places, no. Not enough money. Bartenders make up a lot of the charm (or frustration) of going out, and automating this literally would take the life out of a place and probably backfire.
Lee Springer
29 May 2019 18:41
When robots mix drinks at the bars I'm going to be the saddest person at the bar since I tend to drink alone. Time to put my phone away and attempt conversation with the other humans.
Jesse (Uncertain)
13 May 2019 14:50
Bartenders serve libations to Humans. Humans are social beings who drink when socializing. Chances are Humans will go drink to escape robots.
Anonymous
07 May 2019 11:55
Some bartnders have prevented suicides, I feel you can't automate that human experience that a lot of people go to a bar for.
Lance O'Conner
01 Apr 2019 23:43
I can't talk to a robot about Karen taking the kids
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