Automation potential of generative AI in the U.S. 2023, by education

Generative AI made the most significant difference in automation potential for those professions needing master’s degrees or higher levels of education. The lack of increase in automation for those with high school diplomas or lower-level education is likely because those with education of that level work highly physical and irregular jobs, activities that are difficult to automate for the digital generative AI process.

Generative AI changes the automation trend

Before the arrival of powerful new generative AI programs such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, it was generally held that automation was going to hit the blue-collar side of the workforce harder than the white-collar. With generative AI, this has been thrown into an upheaval, with some estimates suggesting that education and workforce training, for example, could be automated at nearly three times the rate before generative AI.

Offices for AI

Notable professions impacted are office workers, particularly those that work in data management, with estimates suggesting a nearly 90 percent automation potential in data processing with generative AI. This means the field has begun to level, as lower educated professions and more manual labor-oriented professions are of far less risk to automation due to generative AI specifically.