A new analysis highlighted by Visual Capitalist reveals which occupations are most exposed to generative artificial intelligence, based on real-world usage data from Microsoft’s research team. This ranking — derived from over 200,000 anonymized Bing Copilot interactions — assesses how often AI is used for job tasks, how often it successfully completes them, and an overall applicability score showing how aligned a job’s tasks are with generative AI capabilities. Exposure here means that a large portion of a job’s duties can already be assisted or performed by AI tools.
At the top of the list are roles involving language, communication, and information processing — areas where AI excels. Jobs like interpreters and translators and historians have some of the highest AI applicability scores, followed closely by passenger attendants, sales representatives of services, writers and authors, and customer service representatives. These roles frequently involve summarizing, drafting, communicating, and synthesizing information — core competencies of generative AI systems.
Beyond those core communication roles, a wide range of knowledge work positions also rank high in exposure. The list includes CNC tool programmers, telephone operators, ticket agents, radio DJs, brokerage clerks, PR specialists, and data scientists, showing that both creative and technical functions can be influenced by AI assistance. Importantly, Microsoft notes that higher AI applicability doesn’t necessarily mean the job will disappear — rather, many tasks are likely to be augmented, helping workers do more with AI instead of being fully replaced.
By contrast, jobs with little AI exposure tend to involve hands-on physical tasks or specialized manual labor that generative models currently can’t replicate effectively. Occupations like dredge operators, bridge and lock tenders, and water treatment plant operators are among those least affected by AI, reflecting that physical and situational judgement tasks remain largely outside the scope of today’s generative systems.
