Security Guard vs Truck Driver: which is more exposed to AI?
Truck Driver carries 5 points more AI exposure than Security Guard.
Truck Driver sits at 40% time-weighted AI exposure against 35% for Security Guard, a 5-point gap driven by the 10% of truck driver work time that current models can already substitute outright. Security Guard holds a larger human-critical core — 46% of the role's time sits in work like "de-escalate confrontations" that models score poorly on. The two sit in different families — Protective Services and Transportation — so any move between them is a career change, not a lateral step.
Seven dimensions, side by side.
What actually creates the gap.
Security Guards spend 30% of their time-weighted week on tasks a current model can produce end-to-end, against 10% for Truck Drivers. The single largest contributor is "write incident reports", graded at 82% and worth 8% of the role's time. That one task accounts for more of the gap than any difference in seniority, tooling, or industry.
- Write incident reports82% · 8% time
- Log visitor entries78% · 6% time
- Draft shift handoffs76% · 4% time
- Monitor camera feeds74% · 12% time
- De-escalate confrontations8% · 8% time
- Respond to incidents on site10% · 12% time
- Support emergency evacuations12% · 4% time
- Route planning and optimisation82% · 10% time
- Handling weather and road hazards8% · 6% time
- Urban and last-mile delivery14% · 18% time
- Loading, securing, and documenting cargo18% · 8% time
Both roles lean on manual, procedural — that is the part of your experience that travels intact. The real divide is cognitive: Truck Drivers score 44 there against 24 for Security Guards, a 20-point spread. That is the gap you would actually have to close.
| DIMENSION | SECURITY GUARD | TRUCK DRIVER |
|---|---|---|
| Cognitive | 24 | 44 |
| Judgement | 52 | 72 |
| Social | 56 | 38 |
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career. With 17 points of average separation across capability dimensions, a move is realistic but not free: expect to deliberately rebuild the dimensions listed above rather than assume they carry.
Score your own exposure in 8 questions →Common questions.
Is Security Guard or Truck Driver more at risk from AI?
Truck Driver. It scores 40% time-weighted AI exposure against 35% for Security Guard — a 5-point gap. 10% of truck driver work time is already fully substitutable by current models, versus 30% for Security Guards.
Which pays more, Security Guard or Truck Driver?
Truck Driver, by roughly $15k at the median ($52k versus $37k). Note that the higher-paying role here is also the more AI-exposed one, which matters if you are weighing pay against durability.
Can a security guard switch to being a truck driver?
Neither role lists the other as a mapped adjacent career. With 17 points of average separation across capability dimensions, a move is realistic but not free: expect to deliberately rebuild the dimensions listed above rather than assume they carry.
Which role is growing faster, Security Guard or Truck Driver?
Truck Driver, at 4% projected ten-year growth versus 2% — a 2-point difference. Growth and AI exposure are separate signals: a role can grow in headcount while the content of the work is substantially rewritten.