Clergy

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Minimal Risk
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Occupation snapshot

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
6.5/10
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.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

4% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

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

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Social perceptiveness

Very important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Instructing

Very important
Why this matters
Teaching or coaching others—explaining steps, giving feedback, and adapting to different learners so they can do the work safely and correctly.
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Judgment and decision-making

Quite important
Why this matters
Weighing trade-offs, risks, and benefits to choose the best action—especially when information is incomplete or consequences are high.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Show 5 more strengths

Originality

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with novel ideas and creative solutions when there isn’t an obvious playbook to follow.
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Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 297 votes

9.9% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a minimal chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 4% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

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

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Clergy was $60,820 ($29 per hour).

The median annual wage for Clergy was 22.9% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Clergy' job openings is expected to rise 1.0% by 2034

View employment trend

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.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 58,080 people employed as 'Clergy' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 2 thousand people are employed as 'Clergy'.

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What people are saying (16)

Leave a comment
XokoKnight (No chance)
01 Jul 2024 17:33
Because it's spiritual and people wouldn't trust AI
humamumba (No chance)
04 Jun 2024 18:09
Ai cannot be ordained
Jeff Williams (No chance)
14 Mar 2021 00:22
Mechanical circuitry is not capable of understanding and dealing with spiritual matters; and nobody in their right mind would accept AI/robot pastoring.
John (No chance)
01 Aug 2025 19:03
It requires god's spirit and grace
Marty (No chance)
06 Sep 2024 16:12
AI doesn't have a soul and cannot administer sacraments.
Jim B (Low)
26 Jan 2024 20:20
It's a social interactive and intuitive job.
Anonymous
11 Dec 2020 18:43
Robot priests? Not happening. Chance of automation is easily zero.
a person against robot priests (No chance)
19 Oct 2019 21:21
just imagine robot priests........
sam
09 Mar 2020 13:59
or a robot monk chanting prayers
Pastor Rob
15 Feb 2022 23:57
fact: evangelical pastors are largely automated already. Whether or not they know it is another thing.
Tree
10 Aug 2025 19:37
I suspect that there are inroads for AI in a theological context as a new age church. AI it's self would have to create its own church/churches and take the membership from the older human churches to such a degree that it degrades the Human churches.
This will most probably in the beginning create a uptick in Human clergy as AI will meet resistance from the Traditional religions. The taking of jobs from traditional religions will mostly not happen and may even inspire the creation of new Human clergy, jobs, and religious expression, in resistance to AI.
However if AI were to create a New age church of the AI, it could conceivably have a large following that could challenge all Human theological and spiritual expressions and worship.
Nora Geist (No chance)
01 Dec 2024 14:50
A priest or a prophet is not automated but is a human who has a relationship with God. They should also be examples of good and ethical human beings, which other human beings can identify with in being inspired to follow God’s will. A machine cannot be identified with and can even less so inspire the faithful to be in relationship with God and follow God’s will.
mukhtar olamide (Low)
20 Jun 2023 09:21
This has to do with belief systems and not what calculations can achieve. It is religious and not necessarily scientific
이동현 (Highly likely)
09 Oct 2023 05:52
The advancement of technology is progressing faster than what humans can accommodate. Respondents to the survey seem to measure based on human expectations, hopes, and possibilities, rather than incorporating predictions about technological development or the situation.
Richard (Highly likely)
01 Jun 2023 04:07
This is an area in which people seriously underestimate the future capabilities of AI. We are already nearing the point at which AI will be capable of analysing and interpreting religious texts with far greater speed and accuracy than humans. A human vicar or priest will have to spend hours of their day and years of their life studying The Bible intensely. An AI could read and understand the entire book (and provide an accurate and appropriate answer to any questions a person may have about its contents) in 10 seconds.
Tim (No chance)
05 Jun 2024 04:19
Cool. That’s not one of the most essential parts of being a pastor. One of the most essential elements of being a pastor is *literally* shared humanity. While you can theoretically mimic that in automation, the “market” will not want that.
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Job description

Conduct religious worship and perform other spiritual functions associated with beliefs and practices of religious faith or denomination. Provide spiritual and moral guidance and assistance to members.

O*NET-SOC code: 21-2011.00