Microsoft: These are the jobs where AI is used the most

It has been apparent for some time that generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Llama, aka Meta AI, are also massively changing the world of work. Tech companies such as Amazon are now getting serious and have announced "AI-supported" job cuts. At the same time, employees are trying to understand which professions could be particularly affected by the changes brought about by AI. A study by Microsoft has now provided new clues.

The software giant's researchers have analyzed work activities "that people perform with the help of AI". They came to the following conclusion: the highest "AI applicability scores" are among knowledge workers who perform computer or administrative tasks. This value indicates the extent to which there is a "non-trivial" use of AI that can successfully perform activities that make up a significant part of a job's tasks. Using these applicability values, the researchers compiled a ranking of 40 professions in which it has the highest value.

No "list of replaceability"

However, Microsoft does not believe that this means that these professions will soon disappear. Rather, the list is intended to show the professions in which Microsoft's own AI application Copilot is currently used the most. The researchers focused on how successfully and comprehensively these activities are carried out. The researchers clarify that the statements in the study can of course only apply to Copilot.

Specifically, according to the authors, they examined a data set of 200,000 "anonymized and privacy-checked conversations between users and Microsoft Bing Copilot". They found that "the most common work activities for which people seek AI assistance include information gathering and writing". The publicly usable AI system itself mainly provided data and possibly linked know-how. It also frequently provided support, wrote, taught and advised.

Flight attendants in third place

Interpreters and translators are at the top of the AI applicability list, followed by historians and flight attendants. Particularly in the case of the latter, it is clear that the study results cannot be understood as a "list of replaceability by AI". The authors of the study themselves concede this: "Occupations such as flight attendants and school bus attendants appear to be areas where our method may overestimate the tool's ability to provide information for occupations for which LLMs may be less relevant." Obviously, a flight attendant does much more in their job than just provide relevant information, and much that requires physical presence.

Customer service and sales representatives, who currently still fill around five million jobs in the US alone, are also at the top of the list, as are writers and authors, telephone operators, ticket sellers and travel agents, radio presenters, brokers, telemarketers and political scientists. News analysts and journalists, mathematicians, editors, business teachers and PR specialists also have a high potential for AI use. This generally applies to knowledge workers who perform computer or administrative tasks.

In general, the study shows that professions that require a bachelor's degree have a higher applicability for AI than jobs with lower educational requirements. The lowest applicability is found among excavator operators, bridge and lock keepers, water treatment plant operators, foundry workers, track layers and associated maintenance personnel, pile drivers and soil grinders and layers.

It's tempting to conclude that occupations that overlap heavily with jobs performed by AI will be automated, resulting in a loss of jobs or wages, the authors write. However, this would be a mistake "as our data do not take into account downstream effects of new technologies on firms, which are very difficult to predict and often counterintuitive". However, the same applies to the idea that occupations in which AI is used to support jobs will expand and wages will rise.

(hos)