Teach courses in communications, such as organizational communications, public relations, radio/television broadcasting, and journalism. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
U.S. Workers
29,260
Median Salary
$77,800
10-Year Growth
+2.1%
Annual Openings
2,700
Typical entry: Doctoral or professional degree
22 of 22 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as public speaking, media criticism, and oral traditions.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can prepare comprehensive lecture materials and deliver them via recorded or live synthesized presentations (including real-time Q&A in many settings), enabling full automation of lecture preparation and delivery.
Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can compile exam questions, administer assessments through learning platforms, auto-grade many item types, and assign grading workflows to people, enabling end-to-end automation of exam workflows.
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
AI: Fully automatable - Routine data entry, grade calculations, and attendance tracking can be fully automated via LMS integrations and AI-driven workflows.
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate syllabi, assignments, rubrics, and handouts tailored to learning objectives and course level with minimal human input.
Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems in 2025 can search academic databases, identify relevant sources, and format accurate bibliographies quickly, making this task fully automatable with proper database access and verification.
Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
AI: Partial - AI can accurately grade objective items and provide rubric-based feedback on many assignments, but struggles with nuanced, contextual, and high-stakes evaluative judgments without human oversight.
Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
AI: Partial - AI can initiate and moderate discussions—especially online—by posing prompts and managing turn-taking, but lacks full capacity for deep socio-emotional facilitation and complex in-person group dynamics.
Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
AI: Partial - AI can host virtual office hours and handle many routine student questions, but human advisors are still needed for complex, sensitive, or development-focused interactions.
Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze outcomes, suggest revisions, and propose pedagogical changes, but final curriculum planning and value judgments require human academic oversight.
Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
AI: Partial - AI can provide personalized academic and career information and suggestions, yet nuanced career mentoring and institutional advising still need human judgement.
Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
AI: Partial - AI can monitor projects, give feedback, and help coordinate supervision, but meaningful mentorship, evaluation of research progress, and conflict resolution remain human tasks.
Keep abreast of developments and technological advances in the communication field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
AI: Partial - AI can continuously scan and summarize literature and flag relevant advances, but professional networking and experiential conference engagement are not fully automatable.
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
AI: Partial - AI can facilitate collaboration through document co-authoring, scheduling, and idea generation, but the interpersonal negotiation and joint decision-making aspects require humans.
Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
AI: Partial - AI can handle scheduling, reporting, budget analysis, and draft communications, yet cannot fully assume the leadership, personnel decision-making, and institutional responsibility of a department head.
Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend and procure textbooks and supplies and automate ordering, but final selections often rely on instructor judgement and institutional constraints.
Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
AI: Partial - AI can design experiments, analyze data, and draft manuscripts, yet original hypothesis generation, ethical oversight, and final authorship responsibility remain primarily human roles.
Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
AI: Partial - As of 2025 AI can draft policy language, analyze agenda items, and summarize meetings but cannot assume the institutional authority, accountability, and political judgment required to fully replace a human committee member.
Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
AI: Partial - AI can automate outreach, personalize communications, answer applicant queries, and support matching, but in-person recruitment, relationship-building, and final placement judgments still require human engagement and oversight.
Act as advisers to student organizations.
AI: Partial - AI can provide resources, program ideas, and routine guidance to student groups, but sustained mentorship, conflict resolution, and official adviser responsibilities require human judgment and presence.
Participate in campus and community events.
AI: Partial - AI can help plan events, create materials, and provide virtual participation, but authentic, in-person engagement and community relationship-building remain human-centered activities.
Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.
AI: Partial - AI can produce analyses, reports, and technical recommendations for government or industry, but delivering consultancy that entails client relationships, accountability, and domain-expert strategic decisions is only partially automatable.
Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
AI: Partial - AI can draft proposals, literature reviews, and budgets and optimize language for funders, but devising original research plans, institutional commitments, and PI accountability still necessitate human leadership and validation.