A new study by Anthropic has identified the types of jobs most likely to remain safe from artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting that many hands-on professions face far less risk of automation than white-collar roles.
The report, titled "Labour market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence," analysed how AI tools such as Claude AI model are currently being used in workplaces and what tasks they could theoretically perform in the future.
Physical jobs show lowest exposure to AI
Researchers found that around 30% of workers have virtually no exposure to AI because their jobs require physical presence or manual work. These include occupations such as cooks, mechanics, bartenders and dishwashers.
Since large language models like ChatGPT cannot perform physical tasks, these roles are currently far less vulnerable to automation compared with office-based jobs.
White-collar roles face greater risk
The study suggests AI could eventually carry out a large share of tasks in sectors such as business, finance, management, computer science and legal services.
For example, the report found AI could theoretically handle up to 94% of tasks performed by computer and mathematics professionals. However, the actual use of AI in these roles remains far lower - around 33% based on real workplace interactions with Anthropic's systems.
Researchers say this gap exists because of legal restrictions, technical limitations and the continued need for human supervision.
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Highly educated workers more exposed
The study indicates that the workers most exposed to AI tend to be older, well-paid and highly educated professionals. Jobs such as lawyers, financial analysts and software developers are among those with the highest potential exposure.
In contrast, many service and manual jobs remain comparatively protected.
Concerns about future job disruption
Some technology leaders have warned that AI could significantly reshape the job market. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, previously suggested the technology could disrupt a large share of entry-level office jobs.
Similarly, Mustafa Suleyman, AI chief at Microsoft, has said many professional roles could change dramatically as AI becomes more capable.
While the report notes that widespread job losses have not yet occurred, researchers say hiring in some AI-exposed sectors has slowed in recent years.
