As companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft publicly announce workforce reductions amid heavy AI investment, workers are scrambling to understand which careers might soon disappear and be outsourced to technology.
A report from Microsoft researchers studying the occupational implications of generative AI offers some clarity.
Translators, historians, and writers are among the roles with the highest AI applicability score, meaning the job’s tasks are most closely aligned with AI’s current abilities, according to the 2025 report that ranked professions. Customer service and sales representatives—which make up about 5 million jobs in the U.S.—will also have to compete with AI.
Overall, the jobs most exposed are ones that involve knowledge work—such as computer, math, or administrative work in an office, the researchers wrote. Sales jobs are also high on the list, since they often involve sharing and explaining information.
While Microsoft said high applicability doesn’t automatically mean those jobs will necessarily be replaced by AI, the list of roles quickly went viral—with professionals deeming them “most at risk.” It comes as companies have been freezing thousands of would-be new roles that it expects AI will take over in the next five years, and 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.
Of course, there are some jobs that are unlikely to be touched by AI: Dredge operators; bridge and lock tenders; and water treatment plant and system operators are among the jobs with virtually no generative AI exposure, thanks in part to their hands-on equipment requirements.
Still, business leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have said every job will be touched by AI in some way, and so it’s best to embrace it.
“Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable,” Huang said at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in 2025. “You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.”
Many of the jobs with high chances of getting upended by AI soon, like political scientists, journalists, and management analysts, are all ones that typically require a four-year degree to land a job. And as the researchers point out, having a degree—which was once considered a surefire path to career advancement—is no longer a safeguard against the changing tides.
“In terms of education requirements, we find higher AI applicability for occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree than occupations with lower requirements,” wrote the researchers, who studied 200,000 real-world conversations of Copilot users and cross-compared the AI’s performance with occupational data.
On the flip side, there are some career paths with low AI exposure that are growing in demand. The health care sector, in particular, is an area that is experiencing this heavily. The home health and personal care aid industry is expected to create among the greatest number of new jobs over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
At the same time, the researchers recognized even their findings don’t capture the full scope of the AI revolution—and there could be further automation caused by more than just generative technology: “Our measurement is purely about LLMs: Other applications of AI could certainly affect occupations involving operating and monitoring machinery, such as truck driving.”
Kiran Tomlinson, a senior Microsoft researcher, told Fortune the study focused on highlighting where AI might change how work is done, not take away or replace jobs.
“Our research shows that AI supports many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing, and communication, but does not indicate it can fully perform any single occupation. As AI adoption accelerates, it’s important that we continue to study and better understand its societal and economic impact,” Tomlinson said.
After seeing the roller coaster of layoffs across the tech industry over the past few years, many Gen Zers have turned to seemingly steadier fields like education.
The sector was the fastest-growing industry among recent U.K. graduates last year, and it was similarly a top career choice for American graduates. And while the profession can provide further work-life balance and decent benefits, the ability for AI to do the work may cause further headaches. 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.
While it’s unlikely that schools will roll out AI teachers en masse, the report’s findings underscore how quickly the technology could reshape the education profession—and many others.
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on July 31, 2025.
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