- Microsoft has listed the jobs least likely to be impacted by artificial intelligence. Healthcare and blue collar jobs are the safest, while those in the communication field are most at risk.
For all the doomsaying about the effect of artificial intelligence on the job market, there are some positions that are, for now at least, relatively safe.
While people in the communications field have good reason to be worried, Microsoft has unveiled a study showing which careers are most and least likely to be affected by generative AI. What it avoided saying directly, though, was whether those careers would vanish in the coming years.
To determine the risk factor, Microsoft analyzed a “dataset of 200k anonymized and privacy-scrubbed conversations between users and Microsoft Bing Copilot” to assess an AI applicability score. The jobs that appear to be most at risk, were those that involve “providing information and assistance, writing, teaching, and advising.”
That said, Microsoft cautioned that a high (or low) AI adaptability was not a sure sign that a job would or wouldn’t become obsolete.
“It is tempting to conclude that occupations that have high overlap with activities AI performs will be automated and thus experience job or wage loss, and that occupations with activities AI assists with will be augmented and raise wages,” the company wrote in the report. “This would be a mistake, as our data do not include the downstream business impacts of new technology, which are very hard to predict and often counterintuitive.”
The study’s not the first to send up a flare about creative positions. What it did that really stood out was look at the jobs where AI seems to have the lowest applicability – and healthcare and blue-collar jobs seem positioned to best withstanding an AI assault.
Here’s a ranked look at the 20 careers that posted the lowest AI applicability score:
- Dredge operators
- Bridge and lock tenders
- Water treatment plant and system operators
- Foundry mold and coremakers
- Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
- Pile driver operators
- Floor sanders and finishers
- Orderlies
- Motorboat operators
- Logging equipment operators
- Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators
- Maids and housekeeping cleaners
- Roustabouts (oil and gas)
- Roofers
- Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators
- Helpers–roofers
- Tire builders
- Surgical assistants
- Massage therapists
- Ophthalmic medical technicians
Other jobs that are in the safety zone include industrial truck and tractor operators, highway maintenance workers, dishwashers, automotive glass installers, embalmers and phlebotomists.