10 Most Vulnerable and Safest Professions from AI Displacement, According to Anthropic

Artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked considerable anxiety among workers, particularly as large language models (LLMs) become increasingly sophisticated. However, the actual threat AI poses to employment remains uncertain.

Researchers from Anthropic have released a report titled “Labour Market Impacts of AI: A New Measure and Early Evidence”. Notably, the researchers did not merely assess AI’s theoretical capabilities on paper. Instead, they compared potential capabilities against real-world data on professional usage of the Claude chatbot in actual workplaces. The findings offer some reassurance, at least for the present.

Anthropic concluded that AI adoption in the workplace currently remains far below the technology’s actual capabilities. Nevertheless, the report clearly maps which professions are beginning to face AI displacement and which remain largely insulated.

According to the report, Anthropic identified approximately 30 per cent of workers in the United States who face zero per cent AI exposure. This means their daily tasks are too infrequent or practically impossible to replace by machines, at least for now.

One notable finding from the report: workers most vulnerable to AI displacement are paradoxically highly educated professionals earning substantial salaries. Data shows that workers with very high AI exposure are predominantly bachelor’s degree holders (37.1 per cent) and postgraduate degree holders (17.4 per cent). Their average salary (32.69 US dollars per hour) is significantly higher than workers with zero AI exposure (22.23 US dollars per hour).

Despite the concerning list above, the research offers positive news. At the time the report was published, Anthropic found no evidence of massive unemployment spikes, even among the most vulnerable professions. Therefore, fears of large-scale job losses due to AI appear unlikely to materialise in the near term.