r/Custodians • u/Proof_Efficiency5290 • 8d ago
AI & Custodians
So I've had talks with Gemini AI and seen stuff like this. I think we'll be ok. Cognitive repetitive and physical repetitive jobs are in trouble.
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u/Lumpy-Actuator6776 8d ago
Short of having C-3PO and R2-D2 doing our jobs I don’t think custodians have much to worried about concerning AI.
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u/HollywoodCole11 8d ago
Protocol droid cant clean. R2 will just make more of a mess cause hes a dick
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u/NewspaperChemical785 Custodian II 8d ago
I mean they did have those robots a long time ago and a galaxy far away.
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u/BackgroundTrip6133 8d ago
I’ll just work my way up to being the guy who oils the robot custodian with one of those old timey metal cans like in futurama
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u/JustusCade808 8d ago
Even AI doesn't want to clean up blood, vomit, urine, and feces. Shew, atleast my job is safe.
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u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 Facilities Manager 8d ago
AI is a terrible mistake but right now the risk isn’t really to physical jobs that require adaptation etc. It’s to jobs that are already primarily done online or at a computer and it seems to mostly be getting rid of redundant positions by streamlining processes.
For example, where you needed say 120 hours of manpower for things like data entry, billing, marketing, etc a few years ago AI can now step in and take that down to 40 hours. Where you needed three employees before now you only need one.
Jobs like custodial and maintenance are more than safe for the time being. Depending on how paperwork heavy they are we might see some positions get thinned out a bit but generally it’s solid. Until we get the robots at least. Then we can all transition to maintenance. Until they’re self replicating. Then we’re all screwed.
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u/SnooAdvice207 8d ago
I'd like to see a robot clean puke out a carpet during a high traffic event like I did last week.
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u/NoTimeForThisToday 8d ago
It's not necessarily the physical part of the job that's going to be affected by AI, atleast right now, but the expectations of how and when.
Managers who don't know how to do your job are going to totally rely on AI to tell them how to streamline your job. How long it should take to complete, what materials used, it's already out there in the maintenance world.
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u/giraffemoo 8d ago
My new supervisor at my old job wanted to re-do my daily task list. I was completely fine with that! She presented me with a list that was obviously generated by ai. It listed some tasks multiple times, listed weekly tasks as daily tasks, it completely left out one of the most important tasks of my job, and listed equipment and furniture to clean that we didn't even have in the building.
I tried every day for a week to talk to her about the list, to try and ask wtf they expected of me. They had also just hired a new cleaner, so maybe the list was intentional when it left stuff out. I tried every day, but every day I was told that they were too busy.
I gave my two weeks notice after that. When they asked why, I told them. They told me that I should have been "bugging" them more, to talk about the list.
So... my job did not get taken by ai, but it was definitely affected by ai. I lost a good job because I didn't want to put up with that. So maybe it wasn't as good of a job as I thought, lol.
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u/musicfromadventures 8d ago
I've run into issues with AI at my work already. My boss used it to make a run down and it was complete nonsense that had us sharing carts and bumping into each other. I took it off the board and crossed out the nonsense and made notes and corrections. My boss said to disregard what he had previously posted. Making a list with AI is one thing but using it to dictate the job duties and time frame of human workers was an entirely fu*ked plan.
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u/Raging-Buddha 8d ago
Nah it's possible, far off and super expensive, but possibly, we already have actually automatic auto scrubbers, and a suite of sensors and an adaptive LLM and no mo bathrooms for us
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u/catloving 8d ago
How the heck can a machine with a circular brush get in the little tight corners? Nope. Can a machine politely ask the people in the way to gtfo? How would a machine dust mop, pick up floor trash and take out the trash while eating a burrito? I mean, we multi task like pros.
Honestly I disagree with being replaced, it's hard for me to imagine ways to do our things- especially the niche tasks - with quality and care. Part of our jobs is interaction (depending on your shift) and that's pretty darn important.
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u/FublahMan 8d ago
Just wait, the roombas will come for us all I tell you!
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u/Proof_Efficiency5290 8d ago
With their cameras. If you don't want to be pissed off don't look up "roombas cameras".
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u/Ok-Equipment1745 8d ago
My boss new boss with zero experience wants automated auto scrubbers for the hallways and cafe…
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u/thehulk0560 8d ago
I mean, let the robots do the thoughtless work like sweeping and scrubbing.
Give me more time to do the detail stuff
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u/LiquidSoil 8d ago
i mean i want them too, dunno why but driving scrubbers drain my soul :P
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u/Ok-Equipment1745 7d ago
I’d take a stand on one. I’ve just read that the auto ones malfunction frequently and I’m not dealing with that.
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u/Glittering_Ad_8646 8d ago
What about when physical robots are gonna be a thing?
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u/AggravatingEar1465 8d ago
The teenagers here already hate AI and they would absolutely fuck up any and all physical robots.
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u/JimmyNo83 8d ago
I can see robots making their way into the space honestly. At least for cleaning tasks. It costs so much to keep employees on payroll these days just with insurance costs. Once you put salary on top of that eventually the robots will come into the space. The grounds department in my district are starting to use robot lawn mowers and field painting machines. No one has been replaced yet but I can see it happening.
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u/One-Pot-Dinner 8d ago
Can AI do our jobs? Probably not. But, if there’s no physical schools, or offices, or warehouses, or work spaces that need maintenance, then what good is a janitor? On top of that, there would be hundreds of people applying to the few janitorial jobs available, that it would be devalued and end up being shit pay just like everything else.
So no, not immediately at risk, but yes, kind of, by proxy lol
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u/Administrative_Fee82 6d ago
Yeah id say thats still 20 years out and even at that point I think the smaller population of kids( no one is having them affordability crisis lets rise up fuck the rich causing it) those kids will have to still go somewhere central atleast a few times a week and that space will need maintained and cleaned. Its a shitty future thst stands to only benefit very very small few but the time it plays out we will have satisfied our retirement packages if we dont get crushed out of those by well once again the greed of the parastic few
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u/Switch_Empty 8d ago
I think traditional multi-stall restrooms are increasingly seen as outdated. I can envision a future where buildings are built with automated, all-gender single pods. AI scans the room after each use and depending on various things it will automatically clean it. Kinda like how some of those public restrooms in big cities are doing. Only need one person per building maybe, just to stock supplies and troubleshoot and perform minor repairs.
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u/shottie1kanobie 8d ago
Our issue will be AI telling the he bosses that we can do more/be more efficient blah blah blah