Microsoft's 2025 Report Identifies 40 Occupations with High Generative AI Overlap

Translators, historians, and writers rank among roles with the highest AI applicability score, meaning their tasks align closely with AI's current abilities.

Jobs most exposed to AI involve knowledge work such as computer, math, or administrative work in an office, the researchers stated. Sales jobs appear high on the list because they often involve sharing and explaining information, per the report.

Higher AI applicability is found for occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree than those with lower requirements. Jobs with high chances of disruption by AI include political scientists, journalists, and management analysts, which typically require a four-year degree.

The report singles out farm and home management educators as well as postsecondary economics, business, and library science teachers as roles with relatively high AI applicability.

The researchers studied 200,000 real-world conversations of Copilot users and cross-compared the AI’s performance with occupational data. The measurement in the report focuses purely on large language models, and other AI applications could affect occupations involving operating and monitoring machinery, such as truck driving.

” Companies have been freezing thousands of would-be new roles that AI is expected to take over in the next five years. Graduates in the U.K. are facing the worst job market since 2018 as employers pause hiring and use AI to cut costs, according to Indeed.

Companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft publicly announced workforce reductions amid heavy AI investment.

Jobs with virtually no generative AI exposure include dredge operators, bridge and lock tenders, and water treatment plant and system operators, due to their hands-on equipment requirements. The top 10 least affected occupations by generative AI are dredge operators, bridge and lock tenders, water treatment plant and system operators, foundry mold and coremakers, rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators, pile driver operators, floor sanders and finishers, orderlies, motorboat operators, and logging equipment operators.