Do you think your job will be spared from disruptions by AI?
Microsoft has ranked professions according to how much they seem to overlap with the current capabilities of artificial intelligence, and the list is going viral as people speculate about which jobs are “most at risk” or “most secure” from AI.
As one TikToker put it, “My dishwasher job is safe. Thank God.”
But the truth is more complicated.
In this new report, Microsoft researchers studied 200,000 anonymized conversations with Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant Copilot and its performance with occupational data to see which professional tasks have the most crossover with AI’s capabilities. Using worker surveys, researchers created an “AI applicability score,” and jobs with a higher score were the most likely to be impacted by AI.
But if your job is on this list, don’t fret: It doesn’t yet mean these jobs for humans are going to be obsolete anytime soon.
“Our study explores which job categories can productively use AI chatbots; it does not provide evidence that AI can replace jobs,” Kiran Tomlinson, the lead study author and senior Microsoft researcher, told HuffPost in an emailed statement.
But the professions on this list do offer clues as to which industries are facing the greatest upheaval from AI.
Interpreters, translators and historians topped the list — but one expert interpreter thinks the study misunderstands their job.
The Microsoft study suggests that having a college degree will not protect you from your job getting upended by AI. “In terms of education requirements, we find higher AI applicability for occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree than occupations with lower requirements,” the study stated.
People who often sit at desks typing away on computers, also known as “knowledge workers,” are the ones whose jobs are most likely to top the list. They include interpreters, translators, historians and writers.
“Our 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,” Tomlinson said.
Here were the top 20 jobs with the highest AI overlap, according to Microsoft research:
Interpreters and translators
Historians
Passenger attendants
Sales representatives of services
Writers and authors
Customer service representatives
Computer numerical control tool programmers
Telephone operators
Ticket agents and travel clerks
Broadcast announcers and radio DJs
Brokerage clerks
Farm and home management educators
Telemarketers
Concierges
Political scientists
News analysts, reporters, journalists
Mathematicians
Technical writers
Proofreaders and copy markers
Hosts and hostesses
The work of interpreters and translators had the highest overlap with current AI chatbot capabilities, but an expert interpreter said the study simplifies the demands of those jobs.
The study findings give “a clinical answer based on data, and it’s not at all taking into account ... the complexity of what language is all about,” said Bridget Hylak, a court-certified interpreter and current administrator of the American Translators Association’s language technology division.
For one, interpreting and translation are two distinct professions, Hylak said, and “we see much more longevity with a traditional interpreter role for the time being than we would with traditional translators.” That’s because translators focus on written communication, but interpreters have to do real-time, high-stakes interpretations of human interactions in medicine, law and foreign policy in which a mistake could “cause a war,” Hylak noted.
Hylak said AI-backed tools like Google Translate can help translate the lowest-stake communications, like letters to friends, “but an official document where the stakes are high, where life or liberty is on the line, or someone’s health is on the line, those kind of things really do need a human in the loop,” Hylak said.
In other words, an AI chatbot cannot replace the knowledge and relationship-building skills of an interpreter when they matter most, like in a hospital or courtroom: “These are the kinds of things people don’t want to take a chance on, don’t want to get sued,” Hylak said.
Top 40 Jobs That Chatbot AI Can’t Yet Do Well
Although there are many jobs that are currently facing AI disruption, there are still many professions that require skills that only a human can do.
Physically demanding jobs that require manual labor and communicating with people face-to-face had lower AI applicability scores, according to the Microsoft report.
People in the trades who operate heavy machinery, like dredge operators, overall had jobs that don’t overlap as much with what AI can currently do. Likewise for many health care and service workers, like massage therapists and housekeepers.
Here is the list of 40 jobs with the least AI overlap, according to the study:
Phlebotomists
Nursing assistants
Hazardous materials removal workers
Helpers (painters and plasterers)
Embalmers
Plant and systems operators
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons
Automotive glass installers and repair[er]s
Ship engineers
Tire repairers and changers
Prosthodontists
Helpers (production workers)
Highway maintenance workers
Medical equipment preparers
Packaging and filling machine operators
Machine feeders and offbearers
Dishwashers
Cement masons and concrete finishers
Supervisors of firefighters
Industrial truck and tractor operators
Ophthalmic medical technicians
Massage therapists
Surgical assistants
Tire builders
Roofer helpers
Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators
Roofers
Roustabouts in the oil and gas industry
Maids and housekeeping cleaners
Paving, surfacing and tamping equipment operators
Logging equipment operators
Motorboat operators
Orderlies
Floor sanders and finishers
Pile driver operators
Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
Foundry mold and coremakers
Water treatment plant and system operators
Bridge and lock tenders
Dredge operators
But before you consider these jobs “safe” from AI’s encroaching influence, know that artificial intelligence is coming for every industry. The anxiety over losing your job to AI remains very real, even if that’s not exactly what the Microsoft research concluded.
In a report released this week by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S.-based employers cited the adoption of generative AI technology as the reason for more than 10,000 job cuts this year.
“Everyone inevitably will be impacted by AI use in logistics and commerce and medicine and law,” Hylak said. “The speed with which we adapt, with which we educate and train people to use it properly, is really going to be key.”
She used her own profession as an example: “It’s only by utilizing these technologies that we will be able to stay in business, any one of us, if we’re serious as a linguist.”