New Report Pinpoints 40 Jobs with Highest AI Risk and 40 Careers Safe from Automation

By Lawal AbdulMalik-

The disruption caused by artificial intelligence is no longer abstract; it presents a concrete financial threat, exemplified by writer Joe Turner who lost £120,000 in just two years. The $38$-year-old writer lost $70\%$ of his client base to easily accessible chatbots.

His experience places his occupation among the 40 specific job roles AI is fast replacing, according to detailed conversations the Money team held with industry experts, leading researchers, and numerous affected workers. “It’s a betrayal,” states Turner, who earned six figures as a freelancer before the widespread rise of generative AI. He laments, “You’ve put your heart and soul into it for so long, and then you get replaced by a machine.” He admits the common feeling, “You always think ‘it’s never going to happen to me’.”

Approximately $85\%$ of the tasks involved in Turner’s writing job could be performed by AI, according to a significant research study published by Microsoft in July that has gone largely unnoticed by the public. The tech giant’s extensive analysis, based on $200,000$ conversations with its Co-Pilot chatbot, concluded the tool could complete at least $90\%$ of the work carried out by coders and historians, $80\%$ of tasks for salespeople and journalists, and $75\%$ for data scientists and DJs.

Other occupations landing in the top 40 jobs most at risk of AI exposure included financial advisers ($69\%$), customer service assistants ($72\%$), and product promoters ($62\%$). Therefore, many white-collar professionals are now considering themselves among the jobs most at risk of AI. Senior Microsoft researcher Kiran Tomlinson insists the study only “explores which job categories can productively use AI chatbots, not take away or replace jobs.”

However, Turner does not accept this, saying, “That’s what they want to market it as.” Experts consulted expressed deep scepticism regarding Microsoft’s official optimism, reinforcing the list of jobs most at risk of AI.

The consensus among external experts suggests a far more dramatic outcome for the jobs most at risk of AI in the near future. “If you were to look at these jobs in three to five years, there’s a very good chance they’ve been replaced entirely,” says an experienced AI consultant, who has deployed the technology in nearly 40 companies over the last decade.

They specify that replacement will happen “Except in areas where they are either relationship-driven or very judgmental.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, the consultant notes that the jobs most at risk of AI are, by their nature, those without complex interpersonal requirements. “These types of jobs are by nature most likely to be replaced entirely by the tool,” agrees AI researcher Xinrong Zhu, an assistant professor at Imperial College London. She considers this moment a very important turning point in the global economy.

This verdict aligns with major job cuts announced over the summer; for instance, buy now, pay later firm Klarna shrunk its workforce by $40\%$ due to investments in AI and a hiring freeze, simultaneously boasting its chatbot was doing the work of $700$ employees. Even Microsoft itself announced plans to lay off $15,000$ employees while investing $\pounds 69$ billion in data centres to train complex AI models, reportedly using AI to save $500$ million in its call centres.

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy publicly stated he expected to “reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively.” The AI consultant cautions against overreacting immediately, noting, “What you tend to see in most businesses is hiring freezes,” not immediate layoffs, despite the fact these are the jobs most at risk of AI.

Moreover, a World Economic Forum survey found that approximately $40\%$ of employers globally expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks. The UK has seen job postings for the jobs most at risk of AI grow four times slower than the least threatened roles between 2019 and 2024, according to PwC’s AI jobs barometer.

Freelancers are acting as the canary in the coal mine, as demand for writing and coding gigs fell by $21\%$ within eight months of ChatGPT’s release, according to Zhu’s study.

Despite the stark warnings from people like OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who warned entire job categories would be “totally, totally gone,” history offers a more nuanced view of the jobs most at risk of AI. Dr. Fabian Stephany, a Labour economist at the University of Oxford, advocates for a pragmatic, cooled-down approach. He suggests looking at how technology has interacted with the labour market historically. For example, Richard Arkwright’s 1769 Spinning Jenny displaced home weavers but increased the need for factory mill workers hundreds of times over.

The invention of the ATM in 1967 similarly led to more bank teller jobs despite automating a key function. Microsoft’s Tomlinson also stresses, “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.”

The study identifies 40 careers where AI can perform only $10\%$ or few tasks. These safe occupations, which are definitively not jobs most at risk of AI, feature tradespeople heavily, including painter-decorators ($4\%$), cleaners ($3\%$), and roofers ($2\%$). Surgical assistants ($3\%$), ship engineers ($5\%$), and nursing assistants ($7\%$) also make the secure list.

While this offers reassurance, veteran audio producer Christian Allen has lost gigs worth $\pounds 7,000$ to AI in the past year, proving that new professions are constantly being added to the list of jobs most at risk of AI. The cost to the client for an AI-generated radio advert was $\pounds 11.99$, whereas a voice actor would expect $\pounds 1,000$. Allen believes he “won’t be doing this in $10$ years’ time.”

The government maintains it is putting people at the heart of its AI plans, backing initiatives to deliver AI skills training to $7.5$ million workers with $\pounds 187$ million. This crucial government involvement is designed to avoid the mistakes of the past, like when laid-off steelworkers were left without support.

For individuals, Stephany advises that CVs showing AI skills have been consistently favoured by recruiters in his ongoing study. Jobs asking for AI skills paid $23\%$ more—a greater salary boost than that from a master’s degree. Thus, investing in skills is the best defence against having a job among the jobs most at risk of AI.

In an encouraging sign, Joe Turner has recently seen some clients return, requesting no AI content at all. Clients found the machine-generated content “hollow” and “soulless,” confirming that quality and human connection ultimately matter more than speed. 

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  money NEWS science Technology
• Date
  11th October 2025

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