Artificial intelligence might not be coming for everyone’s job, but if you spend much of your day writing reports, researching data or producing documents, you might want to keep an eye on it.
Panmure Liberum’s Joachim Klement uses a new study from Microsoft to explore which professions are most exposed to the advance of generative AI.
The research, based on more than 200,000 conversations with users of Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, found that the most common uses for the tool were finding information and writing content for external audiences.
In other words, the sort of work done every day by communications teams, analysts, journalists and consultants.
It’s hardly shocking, then, that when Microsoft’s researchers compared these tasks with government time-use surveys, the overlap suggested that white-collar professionals are the ones most likely to be displaced.
Topping the list of at-risk jobs are technical writers, policy advisers, PR specialists, and financial analysts. Klement notes drily that “research analyst” might also be somewhere on the list, “if not explicitly mentioned”.
The paper also identified the jobs least likely to be taken over by AI, and these tend to involve manual work, routine maintenance or direct human interaction.
Water treatment plant operators, brick masons and healthcare aides are, for now, safe from automation. The catch, of course, is that these roles generally pay far less than the knowledge-based jobs that AI is encroaching on.
Klement’s conclusion is wry rather than alarmist. While many office workers might privately hope their job turns out to be indispensable, the data suggest that AI’s encroachment on information-heavy roles is real and accelerating.
The technology’s reach may be limited for now, but it is expanding quickly into tasks that once looked securely human.
In his “Thought of the Day” series, Klement often steps back from markets to examine the wider world that shapes them.
This week’s reflection is less about stock valuations than the shifting ground under the labour market.
For investors, it’s another reminder that the AI boom is not just an abstract theme for tech portfolios; it’s a force already reshaping productivity, pay and employment across industries.
The good news, if it can be called that, is that the machines still need people, at least to build, maintain and guide them. The bad news is that the people who teach them to write may soon find the students working alone.