- Mar 3, 2025
- 10 minutes
Written By
-
Stephanie Vanden-Berghe
AI is transforming industries worldwide. One common concern is whether AI will automate certain professions, leading to their disappearance. Recent research by Anthropic [1], analyzing millions of user interactions with their AI chatbot Claude, offers insight into how AI adoption varies across tasks, professions, and industries.
Which sectors are most impacted by AI?
It is no surprise that physical professions—such as farming, construction, and transportation—are less affected by AI adoption compared to knowledge-based fields. The largest group of AI users comes from software engineering, where the demand for technical writing and coding assistance is exceptionally high. Beyond technical fields, AI is also frequently used for cognitive tasks such as writing, summarizing, and critical thinking.
The second-largest group of AI users comes from the Arts & Media and Educational sectors, where AI supports marketing strategies and academic writing.
According to a report by Brookings [3], the impact of AI differs from previous technological advancements. While past innovations primarily affected routine and manual jobs, AI has a more pronounced influence on cognitive and creative tasks. Interestingly, AI adoption varies by income level. Both low-earning and very high-earning occupations, such as shampooers or obstetricians, are less likely to use AI. In contrast, mid-to-high earners—including copywriters, bioinformatics technicians, software developers, and computer programmers—are more likely to integrate AI into their daily workflows, either as a tool for assistance or, in some cases, to automate tasks. It’s uncertain whether this pattern is driven by awareness, access, skills, or the nature of work, but the uneven adoption of AI across different income groups raises important questions about how it will reshape economic class structures. Historically, automation has often displaced routine jobs while creating new opportunities in higher-skilled roles—but AI’s ability to enhance cognitive and creative tasks may disrupt this pattern in unexpected ways.
Occupational usage of Claude.ai by annual wage
Geographically, the impact of AI is greater in urban areas compared to rural regions. Urban environments, with a higher concentration of knowledge-based professionals, see more AI adoption, while rural areas, where physical professions are more common, experience less disruption. This marks a key difference from earlier technological waves, which primarily affected manual labour concentrated in rural areas.
How are AI systems being utilized?
Despite growing adoption, only 4% of users rely on AI for more than 75% of their tasks. However, over one-third use AI for at least 25% of their work, indicating substantial integration in specific occupational activities.
Depth of AI usage across occupations
Whether AI is “taking over” the labor market depends on how it is used. In 57% of cases, AI supports human workers by enhancing task performance rather than replacing them. Common supportive tasks include reviewing human-written text or providing supplementary information.
While automation accounts for an estimated 43% of AI usage, this figure may be inflated. In practice, many “automated” tasks still involve human oversight and refinement, meaning the true share of fully automated work is likely lower.
Distribution of automation vs. augmentation behaviors
Rather than fully replacing human labor, AI is primarily used to assist with specific tasks within broader occupational roles. This suggests that while AI adoption is increasing, it is not currently displacing entire professions.
Is AI dominating the economic landscape?
In a short time, AI systems have become a key part of daily workflows. What was once novel and inaccessible is now used by over a third of professionals to support their occupational tasks.
Although AI is not yet taking over the labour market, its influence is substantial. As AI capabilities continue to expand, the job market and required skill sets will evolve alongside these technological advancements.
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