AI is rapidly scaling in the workforce and creating fears of an employment crisis, as workers and people entering the workforce try to figure out if their career is on the chopping block.<\/p>\n
That quick pace is backed by emerging data<\/a>. As a result, people are trying to find \u201cAI-proof\u201d jobs that can guarantee job security as companies around the world choose to automate tasks<\/a> instead of hiring new workers.<\/p>\n Although no study can definitively say which occupations are 100% AI-proof and which are doomed to automation, a recent Microsoft study and its findings can shed a light on the matter.<\/p>\n A Microsoft study published last month measured how AI can productively apply to the common tasks of different jobs.<\/p>\n Microsoft researchers analyzed more than 200 thousand anonymized conversations from Bing Copilot, the company\u2019s search engine chatbot, from January 2024 through September 2024 to see \u201cwhat tasks users perform with a mainstream, publicly available, free-to-use generative AI chatbot,\u201d the study<\/a> says.<\/p>\n The study then developed \u201cAI applicability scores\u201d for these jobs, a number that represents the combination of which work activities people sought the most AI assistance for plus how successful these tasks were and their scope of impact.<\/p>\n There are caveats <\/p>\n Although the study shows which occupations AI can automate best, and those which it can\u2019t do as well, Microsoft says that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that those jobs will be eliminated.<\/p>\n The AI applicability score highlights \u201cwhere AI might change how work is done, not take away or replace jobs,\u201d Microsoft representatives told Gizmodo<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cOur research shows that AI supports many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing, and communication, but does not indicate it can fully perform any single occupation,\u201d Microsoft said.<\/p>\n The data also does not imply that jobs with high AI applicability scores will have higher wages thanks to AI incorporation, the study noted, because the data does not include \u201cthe downstream business impacts of new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more about AI\u2019s predicted effect on the corporate world from Gizmodo here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why companies automate <\/p>\n Microsoft believes AI can be used to augment these jobs rather than completely automating them.<\/p>\n But is that what corporate executives want? It\u2019s tough to make a blanket statement on that, but early signs indicate that executives might be more pro-automation than not.<\/p>\n Increasingly, executives around the corporate world are voicing their expectations and desires to see AI cut costs across the workplace. This news has naturally led to a slowdown in hiring, particularly impacting early career workers<\/a> in white-collar fields to which, as the Microsoft study also shows, AI poses the biggest threat.<\/p>\n \u201cArtificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.,\u201d Ford CEO Jim Farley<\/a> said at the Aspen Ideas Festival just last month.<\/p>\n Several executives have also already put into effect new hiring policies<\/a> this year that ask managers to explain why an AI agent can\u2019t fulfill the role before they can go ahead with hiring a new worker.<\/p>\n Just because you can doesn\u2019t mean you should <\/p>\n AI can cut labor costs and increase profit for companies. But that is not yet a case for wholesale automation.<\/p>\n Although AI can automate some of these jobs, it doesn\u2019t mean it can do a great job at it.<\/p>\n For example, Microsoft says that writers are in the top 10 for highest AI applicability. But AI-generated writing has been criticized far and wide, particularly for its bountiful copyright issues<\/a> as AI feeds on the work of existing human writers to \u201ccreate\u201d new pieces.<\/p>\n The disruption of the labor market that is bound to follow the automation of certain jobs should also be a cause for concern.<\/p>\n Former Google executive Mo Gawdat said earlier this month that he believes this AI-driven labor problem is one of several aspects of the way we approach AI that is bound to lead to a short-term dystopia<\/a> in the next 15 years.<\/p>\n Much like the Microsoft researchers that worked on the study, many other experts argue that the augmentation<\/a> of AI into certain fields is a much better way to fuse AI into the economy for productivity gains than automation.<\/p>\n So what are the jobs? <\/p>\n Here are the ones most likely to stay human-run, the study says:<\/p>\n 10. Tire Repairers and Changers<\/p>\n 9. Ship Engineers<\/p>\n 8. Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers<\/p>\n 7. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons<\/p>\n 6. Plant and System Operators<\/p>\n 5. Embalmers<\/p>\n 4. Helpers-Painters, Plasterers<\/p>\n 3. Hazardous Materials Removal Workers<\/p>\n 2. Nursing Assistants<\/p>\n 1. Phlebotomists (aka healthcare professionals trained to collect blood samples)<\/p>\n AI works with data. So it is not surprising that the list overwhelmingly includes healthcare industry<\/a> jobs, and blue collar work, both of which require specialized physical expertise rather than clear-cut data synthesis.<\/p>\n In the healthcare industry specifically, AI adoption has also been particularly slow<\/a> due to limited datasets. Only less than 10% of surgical data is publicly available due to strict regulations.<\/p>\n The jobs that are at highest risk\u00a0 <\/p>\n