Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in landscaping or groundskeeping activities. Work may involve reviewing contracts to ascertain service, machine, and workforce requirements; answering inquiries from potential customers regarding methods, material, and price ranges; and preparing estimates according to labor, material, and machine costs.
U.S. Workers
124,130
Median Salary
$56,170
10-Year Growth
+2.3%
Annual Openings
23,200
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent
26 of 28 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.
Monitor project activities to ensure that instructions are followed, deadlines are met, and schedules are maintained.
AI: Fully automatable - AI and project-management systems can continuously track activities, milestones and deadlines, flag deviations, and provide reminders to keep schedules on track.
Schedule work for crews, depending on work priorities, crew or equipment availability, or weather conditions.
AI: Fully automatable - Scheduling based on priorities, crew/equipment availability, and weather is readily automatable with optimization algorithms and real‑time data feeds.
Perform administrative duties, such as authorizing leaves or processing time sheets.
AI: Fully automatable - Routine administrative tasks like authorizing leave and processing timesheets are already well handled by software and AI with high reliability.
Answer inquiries from current or prospective customers regarding methods, materials, or price ranges.
AI: Fully automatable - AI chatbots and estimator tools can answer common customer questions about methods, materials, and price ranges and generate quotes for standard cases.
Prepare service estimates based on labor, material, and machine costs and maintain budgets for individual projects.
AI: Fully automatable - Given cost databases and job inputs, AI tools in 2025 can generate detailed labor/material/machine estimates and maintain project budgets end‑to‑end with high reliability.
Maintain required records, such as personnel information or project records.
AI: Fully automatable - Recordkeeping for personnel and projects is highly automatable and AI systems in 2025 can maintain and update required records reliably when integrated with business systems.
Prepare or maintain required records, such as work activity or personnel reports.
AI: Fully automatable - Preparing and maintaining work activity and personnel reports is routine and can be fully automated by AI tools that collect and format operational data.
Establish and enforce operating procedures and work standards that will ensure adequate performance and personnel safety.
AI: Partial - AI can draft operating procedures, model safety standards and detect noncompliance, but establishing policy and enforcing standards ultimately require human leadership and accountability.
Inspect completed work to ensure conformance to specifications, standards, and contract requirements.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze photos, specs, and checklists to flag nonconformance but cannot fully replicate nuanced on-site judgment and tactile checks.
Direct activities of workers who perform duties, such as landscaping, cultivating lawns, or pruning trees and shrubs.
AI: Partial - AI can generate plans, assign tasks, and monitor progress remotely, but lacks full situational leadership, interpersonal management, and on-the-ground judgment.
Provide workers with assistance in performing duties as necessary to meet deadlines.
AI: Partial - AI can provide real-time guidance, task sequencing, and resource optimization to help meet deadlines but cannot physically assist workers on site.
Confer with other supervisors to coordinate work activities with those of other departments or units.
AI: Partial - AI can coordinate schedules and exchange information between supervisors automatically, yet cannot fully replace human negotiation and cross-departmental discretion.
Tour grounds, such as parks, botanical gardens, cemeteries, or golf courses, to inspect conditions of plants and soil.
AI: Partial - AI can inspect plants and soil from photos, sensor data, or drone imagery and flag issues, but it cannot independently perform comprehensive physical tours or resolve ambiguous, tactile, or subsurface conditions without human verification.
Direct or assist workers engaged in the maintenance or repair of equipment, such as power tools or motorized equipment.
AI: Partial - AI can diagnose faults, provide step‑by‑step repair instructions, and schedule maintenance, but hands‑on mechanical repairs generally still require human technicians or specialized robotics.
Direct or perform mixing or application of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides.
AI: Partial - AI can calculate dosages, enforce safety checks, and control automated applicators in some contexts, but regulatory, safety, and complex on-site judgments limit full automation.
Inventory supplies of tools, equipment, or materials to ensure that sufficient supplies are available and items are in usable condition.
AI: Partial - AI can track inventory and predict reorders using sensors and vision, but evaluating whether items are truly in usable condition often still requires human inspection.
Investigate work-related complaints to verify problems and to determine responses.
AI: Partial - By 2025 AI can triage complaints, analyze photos/reports, and recommend responses, but it cannot reliably perform all on‑site verification and contextual judgment alone.
Perform personnel-related activities, such as hiring workers, evaluating staff performance, or taking disciplinary actions when performance problems occur.
AI: Partial - AI can automate screening, draft evaluations, and suggest disciplinary actions, yet final hiring and sensitive personnel decisions still require human judgment and legal/ethical oversight.
Review contracts or work assignments to determine service, machine, or workforce requirements for jobs.
AI: Partial - AI can parse contracts and estimate required services, machines, and staffing from data, but complex site‑specific factors and contractual nuances typically need human review.
Order the performance of corrective work when problems occur and recommend procedural changes to avoid such problems.
AI: Partial - AI can detect problems, create and dispatch corrective work orders, and recommend procedural changes, but implementing and authorizing some corrective actions usually needs human oversight.
Train workers in tasks such as transplanting or pruning trees or shrubs, finishing cement, using equipment, or caring for turf.
AI: Partial - AI can produce training curricula, videos, simulations, and assessments for tasks like pruning or equipment use, but hands‑on supervised practice and safety coaching still require humans.
Negotiate with customers regarding fees for landscaping, lawn service, or groundskeeping work.
AI: Partial - AI can draft proposals, suggest pricing strategies, and conduct scripted negotiations, but nuanced, high‑stake customer negotiations typically need human relationship management and discretion.
Design or supervise the installation of sprinkler systems, calculating water pressure, or valve and pipe coverage needs.
AI: Partial - AI and design software can calculate pressure, coverage, and produce sprinkler layouts, but supervising physical installation and adapting to unexpected field conditions still require human oversight.
Identify diseases or pests affecting landscaping and order appropriate treatments.
AI: Partial - AI can identify many common plant diseases and pests from images and recommend treatments, but accuracy, edge cases, regulatory constraints for pesticides, and on-site verification prevent fully autonomous treatment ordering in 2025.
Recommend changes in working conditions or equipment use to increase crew efficiency.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze workflows, schedules, and equipment usage to suggest efficiency improvements, but human judgment and site-specific, social, and safety considerations limit full automation of recommendations and implementation.
Confer with managers or landscape architects to develop plans or schedules for landscaping maintenance or improvement.
AI: Partial - AI can generate plans and schedules and prepare briefing materials and alternatives, but it cannot fully replace human negotiation, stakeholder coordination, and on-site decision-making in collaborative development.
Plant or maintain vegetation through activities such as mulching, fertilizing, watering, mowing, or pruning.
AI: Not automatable - Physical planting and maintenance tasks require hands‑on work (or advanced robots) and, as of 2025, AI cannot generally perform the full range of manual horticultural activities autonomously.
Install or maintain landscaped areas, performing tasks such as removing snow, pouring cement curbs, or repairing sidewalks.
AI: Not automatable - These are diverse, manual, and often unpredictable physical tasks (snow removal, pouring concrete, repairing sidewalks) that cannot be fully performed by AI alone as of 2025.