A new Microsoft report ranks 80 professions by their risk of being replaced by AI tools.

BY BRUCE CRUMLEY @BRUCEC_INC

Photo: Getty Images

A new study measuring the use of generative artificial intelligence in different professions has just gone public, and its main message to people working in some fields is harsh. It suggests translators, historians, text writers, sales representatives, and customer service agents might want to consider new careers as pile driver or dredge operators, railroad track layers, hardwood floor sanders, or maids — if, that is, they want to lower the threat of AI apps pushing them out of their current jobs.

Why should anyone heed yet another of the myriad, sometimes conflicting reports in AI’s potential impacts on jobs? Because the researchers behind the new findings really know what they’re talking about. They all work for tech giant Microsoft, which is developing Copilot and related AI apps examined in the study. And those tools, the authors say, risk putting ticket agents and telemarketers out of work far sooner than orderlies and paving equipment operators.

The Microsoft study comes as debate continues raging about the employment threats AI may pose to millions of people in clerical, administrative, communications, marketing, and other jobs.

Executives of several tech companies, including AI developer Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei, have alternatively cheered or warned about bots automating a wide range of work tasks, potentially

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