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If you’re a translator, historian, writer, data scientist, or customer service representative, your job could be ripe for being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
That’s according to a new, not-yet-reviewed research from Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), which identified 40 occupations with tasks most likely to be replaced by AI. Their findings suggest that knowledge work and communication-heavy jobs are the most vulnerable to AI disruption, while roles requiring physical labor or direct human interaction are projected to stay relatively safe.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft researchers argue that jobs involving writing, research, and communication, such as translators, journalists, and historians, may be replaceable by AI tools.
- Occupations requiring physical labor or human interaction, like nursing assistants and massage therapists, are least affected by AI.
Which Jobs Face the Greatest Risk?
To determine AI’s potential impact, Microsoft researchers analyzed user interactions with Bing Copilot over nine months in 2024. They narrowed down the conversations to those related to work tasks and then measured how successful AI was at completing those tasks.
They then combined that data with information on which occupations include those work tasks, calculating an “AI applicability score,” which measures how likely a job is to be impacted by AI.
Roles with the highest scores tended to include tasks such as information gathering, summarizing, or drafting—all activities where AI performs well. These jobs included the following:
- Interpreters
- Journalists
- Political scientists
- Web developers
- Mathematicians
- Sales representatives
- Geographers
- Hostesses
- Personal finance advisors
- Economics teachers
The roles with the highest applicability scores tended to be knowledge work or white collar professions. The researchers found that many Copilot users used the AI for gathering information and writing tasks, at which it rated well.
“It is tempting to conclude that occupations that have high overlap with activities AI performs will be automated and thus experience job or wage loss, and that occupations with activities AI assists with will be augmented and raise wages,” the researchers wrote. “This would be a mistake, as our data does not include the downstream business impacts of new technology, which are very hard to predict and often counterintuitive.”
Which Jobs Are the Least Vulnerable?
On the flip side, jobs with the lowest applicability scores involved physical labor, working directly with people, or operating machinery.
These jobs included the following:
- Nursing assistants
- Ship engineers
- Embalmers
- Oral surgeons
- Massage therapists
- Maids
- Tire builders
- Roofers
- Floor sanders
The Bottom Line
The way that AI impacts the workforce remains uncertain, even as investors pour billions of dollars into companies that promise to revolutionize the way people work.
While certain jobs have many work activities, like doing research and writing, that can be automated or augmented by AI, the researchers did not find any occupations that AI could fully replace. “Our data do not indicate that AI is performing all of the work activities of any one occupation,” the researchers wrote.
For now, AI appears more likely to assist or augment certain job tasks rather than outright replace entire professions. But as the technology evolves, adaptation might be key for both employers and workers navigating this new era of work.
