Groundskeeper / Grounds Maintenance Worker
As of August 2026, groundskeeping and landscaping work is holding up despite real investment in robotic mowers.
In real usage data, AI shows up in this job less often than in most occupations.
Technical detail
Based on Microsoft's "Working with AI" study of real Copilot conversations mapped to O*NET tasks (arXiv 2507.07935): Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers scored 0.043 on AI applicability, notably below the cross-occupation mean (0.159, stdev 0.098) across all 785 SOC codes studied — banded here as Low real-world AI usage relative to other occupations.
What a groundskeeper / grounds maintenance worker actually does
Groundskeepers maintain the outdoor areas of commercial properties, educational campuses, parks, cemeteries, golf courses, and other facilities. The work involves mowing lawns, trimming shrubs and hedges, planting flowers, trees, and seasonal beds, applying fertilizers and pesticides according to schedules and safety guidelines, removing leaves and storm debris, maintaining walkways and irrigation lines, operating mowers, edgers, and other power equipment, and performing snow and ice removal in winter climates.
Advanced positions involve designing planting schemes, programming and repairing irrigation systems, and supervising landscaping crews across multiple properties. Golf course maintenance requires specialized knowledge of turfgrass management, including mowing heights measured in fractions of an inch and disease monitoring on greens and fairways. Cemetery groundskeepers combine routine maintenance with sensitivity to grieving families visiting graves, often working around services in progress.
The role requires physical stamina for outdoor work in heat, cold, and rain, safe operation of power equipment around pedestrians, and increasingly, understanding of sustainable landscaping practices like xeriscaping and integrated pest management. Many groundskeepers develop expertise in specific areas like athletic field maintenance, where turf must withstand heavy foot traffic, or ornamental horticulture.
Why it reads this way
As of August 2026, groundskeeping and landscaping work is holding up despite real investment in robotic mowers. Scythe Robotics' M. 52 mowed about 2 billion square feet for dozens of commercial customers across 30 states in 2025, and Autonomous Solutions Inc. acquired the company in March 2026 specifically to scale it further — genuine commercial deployment, not a pilot.
But the machines run on a "supervised autonomy" model: one worker still oversees each mower while handling trimming and detail work by hand. Level Green Landscaping's own CTO frames the shift as reallocating staff, not cutting headcount — he's on record saying "we won't all of the sudden get 100 robots and get rid of all the people.
" O*NET data shows why the rest of the job resists automation too: 99% of workers are outdoors every day and the role regularly requires lifting up to 50 lbs — conditions today's robots handle only for mowing, not trimming, planting, irrigation, hardscaping, or design. (Note: Groundskeeper and Landscaper share the identical O*NET occupation code, 37-3011. 00 — this is the same underlying job, so this page's verdict is based directly on that research.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$30,000–$52,000
Average: $42,290/yr
Range source: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2024
Average source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Annual Mean Wage)
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
As of 2026-08-09, Groundskeeper (structuralScore 94, Safe band) shares the identical O*NET code (37-3011.00, "Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers") with the already-researched Landscaper job on this site -- both titles describe the same BLS/O*NET occupation. Rather than commission duplicate research, this verdict directly applies Landscaper's findings: the mandatory section 2a robotics-materiality check passes, but narrowly. Real, fast-growing commercial autonomous mowers exist -- Scythe Robotics' M.52 mowed roughly 2 billion square feet for dozens of customers across 30 states in 2025 and was acquired by Autonomous Solutions Inc. in March 2026 specifically to scale further -- but they run on a supervised-autonomy model (one human still oversees each unit) and named operators, including Level Green Landscaping's CTO, describe the effect as reallocating crews to trimming and detail work rather than cutting headcount, a read reinforced by the industry's chronic understaffing. Category 3 evidence is strong and Primary-sourced: O*NET data shows 99% of workers are outdoors every day and the job regularly requires lifting up to 50 lbs, conditions today's robots address only for the narrow mowing sub-task, not trimming, planting, irrigation, hardscaping, or design. Confidence is held at Medium rather than High because a real, well-funded, actively scaling robotic competitor exists in this specific space and the near-term trajectory is genuinely uncertain. Note: this page's growthRate (6%, 2024-2034) differs slightly from Landscaper's page (5%, 2024-2034) despite the identical underlying occupation code -- flagged for a data-accuracy follow-up, not corrected as part of this verdict.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-09.
Sources (9)
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/37-3011.00
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/building-and-grounds-cleaning/grounds-maintenance-workers.htm
- https://datausa.io/profile/soc/landscaping-and-groundskeeping-workers
- https://scytherobotics.com/meet-m-52
- https://scytherobotics.com/blog-posts/scythe-acquired-by-asi
- https://www.lawnandlandscape.com/news/autonomous-solutions-asi-acquires-scythe-robotics/
- https://levelgreenlandscaping.com/about/culture-landscaping-careers/will-robots-affect-landscaping-career-what-need-know
- https://www.husqvarna.com/us/discover/news-and-media/2026/560epos/
- https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/certification-standards-pesticide-applicators
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2024. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Annual Mean Wage).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (37-3011.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 4% (2024-2034), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.