Jobs at risk from AI
The jobs most exposed to AI usually contain repeatable language, lookup, classification, reporting, data entry, scripted service, or routine analysis. Use this list as a starting point for deeper occupation pages.
Data Entry Keyers
Routine structured entry, duplicate checks, and record transfer are highly exposed to direct automation. The strongest transition path moves workers from keystroke volume into data quality, exception handling, and workflow support.
- Pressure
- 86
- Automation
- 78%
- Wage risk
- 76
Cashiers
Transaction scanning, payment handling, price lookup, and routine customer routing are highly exposed to self-checkout, kiosks, and computer vision workflows. Service recovery, trust, store knowledge, and shift reliability remain the strongest anchors.
- Pressure
- 78
- Automation
- 58%
- Wage risk
- 90
Interpreters and Translators
Text translation, captioning, and routine localization are highly exposed to machine translation and speech systems. Live interpretation, legal/medical nuance, cultural adaptation, and quality review remain more defensible.
- Pressure
- 76
- Automation
- 61%
- Wage risk
- 60
Tellers
Routine transactions left for apps and ATMs years ago, and AI assistants now absorb the service questions that justified remaining branch staff. Banks are converting teller lines into advisory roles, so the realistic path is upward into banker, lending, or operations tracks rather than defending the window.
- Pressure
- 76
- Automation
- 58%
- Wage risk
- 80
Writers and Authors
Drafting, summarization, outlines, headlines, product copy, and content variations are highly exposed to generative AI. Original reporting, taste, editorial judgment, audience trust, and subject-matter expertise become more important.
- Pressure
- 74
- Automation
- 54%
- Wage risk
- 58
Tax Preparers
Standard individual returns are the textbook case for document-driven automation: intake, classification, and form preparation are increasingly completed by software with AI review. Complex filings, representation, and planning conversations are where human preparers retain clear value.
- Pressure
- 74
- Automation
- 64%
- Wage risk
- 56
Customer Service Representatives
Scripted inquiries, routing, and knowledge-base answers are highly exposed. Complex escalation, retention, empathy, and account context remain the transition anchors.
- Pressure
- 73
- Automation
- 57%
- Wage risk
- 79
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Calendar management, drafting, formatting, travel planning, note summaries, and routine follow-ups are exposed to AI assistants. Executive context, prioritization, confidentiality, and process ownership remain the transition anchors.
- Pressure
- 72
- Automation
- 55%
- Wage risk
- 66
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
Invoice matching, reconciliations, and routine reporting are exposed to automation. Judgment around controls, vendor context, audit trails, and anomaly escalation can become more valuable.
- Pressure
- 71
- Automation
- 59%
- Wage risk
- 64
Receptionists and Information Clerks
Appointment scheduling, call routing, visitor instructions, and routine intake are exposed to AI agents and workflow software. Trust, escalation judgment, local context, and office operations coordination remain defensible.
- Pressure
- 69
- Automation
- 51%
- Wage risk
- 78
Insurance Underwriters
Personal-lines risk scoring is already largely algorithmic, and AI extends that reach into small-commercial underwriting. Complex commercial, specialty, and excess lines still depend on negotiated judgment, broker relationships, and portfolio strategy, which is where underwriters should move.
- Pressure
- 66
- Automation
- 52%
- Wage risk
- 36
Technical Writers
First-draft documentation, release notes, and reference material now generate quickly from specs and code. What endures is information architecture, accuracy verification against real systems, audience judgment, and owning documentation as a product, which moves writers toward docs engineering and content strategy.
- Pressure
- 64
- Automation
- 50%
- Wage risk
- 42
Computer Programmers
Writing code to someone else's specification is exactly what AI coding tools now do well, and BLS projected this occupation to decline even before modern code generation. The defensible move is up the stack: owning design, integration, review, and outcomes rather than implementation alone.
- Pressure
- 63
- Automation
- 49%
- Wage risk
- 32
Fast Food and Counter Workers
Kiosk ordering, drive-through voice systems, scheduling tools, and prep automation can reduce routine counter work. Reliability, shift leadership, food safety, and customer recovery remain more resilient.
- Pressure
- 62
- Automation
- 39%
- Wage risk
- 88
Editors
Copyediting, style enforcement, and routine line edits are well within AI capability, and generative drafting changes what arrives on an editor's desk. Editorial judgment — deciding what is worth publishing, shaping arguments, managing writers, and owning standards — concentrates value at the top of the craft.
- Pressure
- 62
- Automation
- 48%
- Wage risk
- 44
Paralegals and Legal Assistants
Document review, drafting, and research are exposed to AI assistance, while case context, client communication, attorney supervision, and jurisdiction-specific process remain important anchors.
- Pressure
- 61
- Automation
- 48%
- Wage risk
- 45
Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators
Document review, damage estimation from photos, and routine claim decisions are moving into automated pipelines. Contested claims, fraud investigation, catastrophe response, and empathetic communication during loss remain strongly human, so the role concentrates into its hardest cases.
- Pressure
- 61
- Automation
- 47%
- Wage risk
- 40
Loan Officers
Application intake, document review, credit summaries, and routine eligibility checks are exposed to automated underwriting. Relationship management, exception judgment, compliance, and borrower trust remain important.
- Pressure
- 60
- Automation
- 46%
- Wage risk
- 42
Retail Salespersons
Product questions, checkout, inventory lookup, and scripted service can be augmented or automated. In-person trust, merchandising judgment, local customer knowledge, and service recovery remain important anchors.
- Pressure
- 58
- Automation
- 34%
- Wage risk
- 82
Computer User Support Specialists
Password resets, how-to questions, and known-issue triage are moving to AI assistants that resolve tickets before they reach a human. Hands-on hardware, escalations, endpoint security, and judgment calls in messy environments keep the human tier, which shifts the job toward harder tickets and systems work.
- Pressure
- 58
- Automation
- 44%
- Wage risk
- 52
News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
Commodity coverage — earnings recaps, sports scores, weather, aggregation — is already automated, and AI summarization erodes rewrite work. Original reporting, sourced investigation, access journalism, and accountable verification remain human work that machines cannot do without the relationships behind it.
- Pressure
- 58
- Automation
- 42%
- Wage risk
- 50
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
Manual regression passes and routine test-case writing are heavily exposed as AI generates tests and exercises applications directly. Quality strategy, risk-based judgment about what to test, and owning release confidence are the durable layer, pushing QA toward engineering and away from execution.
- Pressure
- 56
- Automation
- 45%
- Wage risk
- 30
Graphic Designers
Asset variation, layout drafts, and production design are exposed, while brand judgment, creative direction, client interpretation, and systems thinking become more important.
- Pressure
- 55
- Automation
- 42%
- Wage risk
- 48
Stockers and Order Fillers
Picking routes, inventory lookup, replenishment priorities, and warehouse slotting are increasingly shaped by software and robotics. Physical execution, exception handling, safety, and equipment operation remain important.
- Pressure
- 54
- Automation
- 36%
- Wage risk
- 74
Web Developers
Template sites, simple storefronts, and routine page builds are increasingly produced by AI site builders, squeezing the low end of the market. Value consolidates in product engineering, performance, accessibility, integrations, and owning outcomes for businesses rather than pages.
- Pressure
- 54
- Automation
- 42%
- Wage risk
- 38
Accountants and Auditors
Transaction coding, reconciliation review, and first-draft reporting are increasingly handled by AI inside accounting platforms. Advisory judgment, controls ownership, attestation, and client communication remain the durable core, so the role is reshaping toward review and assurance rather than disappearing.
- Pressure
- 52
- Automation
- 38%
- Wage risk
- 34
Market Research Analysts
Summarization, draft segmentation, and desk research are exposed, but domain judgment, study design, stakeholder context, and synthesis make this a strong augmentation case.
- Pressure
- 45
- Automation
- 37%
- Wage risk
- 38
Human Resources Specialists
Resume screening, policy answers, and first-draft communications can be automated or augmented, but employee relations, hiring judgment, trust, and process design keep the role human-centered.
- Pressure
- 44
- Automation
- 35%
- Wage risk
- 36
Financial Analysts
Data gathering, model maintenance, and first-draft commentary compress sharply under AI assistance. The role tilts toward framing questions, challenging model output, and defending recommendations to decision-makers, which raises the bar for junior entry while augmenting experienced analysts.
- Pressure
- 43
- Automation
- 31%
- Wage risk
- 26
Real Estate Sales Agents
Listing descriptions, market comps, scheduling, and lead qualification are automating quickly, and AI search changes how buyers discover homes. The transaction's emotional weight, negotiation, local knowledge, and licensed accountability keep agents central — but commission pressure and fewer, more productive agents are the realistic trajectory.
- Pressure
- 40
- Automation
- 28%
- Wage risk
- 46
Software Developers
Code generation changes the junior task bundle, but architecture, debugging, security, product judgment, and system ownership keep the role augmentation-heavy.
- Pressure
- 39
- Automation
- 29%
- Wage risk
- 24
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
Lead research, outreach drafts, and CRM updates are augmentable, but territory knowledge, negotiation, trust, and account strategy remain central.
- Pressure
- 38
- Automation
- 28%
- Wage risk
- 39
Project Management Specialists
Status reporting, meeting summaries, dependency tracking, and draft plans are strong augmentation cases. Human negotiation, sequencing, tradeoff calls, and stakeholder trust remain the core value.
- Pressure
- 37
- Automation
- 22%
- Wage risk
- 30
Medical Assistants
Scheduling, chart preparation, and patient messaging can be augmented. Hands-on care, rooming patients, vital signs, specimen handling, and local clinical protocols keep the role comparatively resilient.
- Pressure
- 34
- Automation
- 18%
- Wage risk
- 50
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
Autonomous trucking is live on limited freight corridors, but full substitution is gated by weather, regulation, liability, first-mile and last-mile complexity, and decades of fleet turnover. Near-term, AI changes dispatch, routing, and monitoring more than it removes drivers, with hub-to-hub corridors automating first.
- Pressure
- 33
- Automation
- 27%
- Wage risk
- 48
Machinists
Physical production limits pure software substitution, while setup optimization, maintenance planning, and quality analytics can augment skilled operators.
- Pressure
- 31
- Automation
- 22%
- Wage risk
- 52
Information Security Analysts
Alert triage, report drafting, detection tuning, and policy review can be accelerated by AI. Accountability, incident command, adversarial reasoning, and environment-specific context keep the role resilient.
- Pressure
- 28
- Automation
- 24%
- Wage risk
- 20
Registered Nurses
Documentation and administrative follow-up can change quickly, but hands-on care, clinical judgment, licensing, and patient trust constrain direct replacement.
- Pressure
- 18
- Automation
- 13%
- Wage risk
- 28
Elementary School Teachers
Lesson prep, differentiated materials, and feedback loops are augmentable. Classroom management, care, student relationships, and local accountability remain central.
- Pressure
- 16
- Automation
- 10%
- Wage risk
- 44
Electricians
Hands-on installation, safety, code compliance, and field troubleshooting make direct AI replacement unlikely, while estimating, diagnostics, and documentation can improve with tools.
- Pressure
- 12
- Automation
- 7%
- Wage risk
- 22