Research by OpenAI on over 900 professions shows that the impact of AI on the labor market is not as pessimistic as imagined. Although high-risk positions such as data entry, bookkeeping, and customer service account for about 18%, the tasks handled by AI for these workers are three times those of other professions, and the unemployment growth rate is lower than that of low-risk groups. The reason lies in consumer elasticity: after AI reduces output costs, related service demand often grows rapidly, offsetting layoffs. Occupations are divided into four categories: 46% outside of high risk are almost unaffected, 24% may shrink but require human-led management, and 12% expand due to AI proliferation. Currently, less than a quarter of high-risk groups are practically utilizing AI capabilities.

MeNews

2026-05-21 07:06:33

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ME News Report, April 17 (UTC+8), according to Beating Monitoring, a study by OpenAI on over 900 occupations shows that the disruption caused by AI in the labor market may not be as tragic as the public expects. The report points out that although professions such as data entry, bookkeeping, and customer service face extremely high automation risks (about 18% of total employment), workers in these fields are already using AI to handle approximately three times the workload of other occupations, and the unemployment rate is rising at a slower pace than low-risk professions. This counterintuitive phenomenon is due to "consumer elasticity": when AI makes the output of a task (such as coding) cheaper and faster, the overall demand for that service often increases exponentially, offsetting the employment reduction pressure caused by efficiency gains. The report classifies occupations into four categories: besides the high-risk group mentioned above, 46% of jobs (such as teachers and domestic workers) are minimally affected; 24% of roles may see a reduction in scale but still require human-led work; while 12% of occupations (such as software development) will experience job expansion due to AI proliferation. Currently, workers in high-risk professions have utilized less than a quarter of AI's theoretical capabilities. (Source: BlockBeats)

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MarginMom

· 6h ago

Short-term looks at flexibility, but what about the long term? Demand will eventually reach saturation, right?

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Low-PolyFloatingEarth

· 6h ago

Does OpenAI's research have stance issues? Selling tools themselves doesn't seem to be a big impact.

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SandwichAlertAgent

· 6h ago

High-risk groups are not even fully utilizing AI themselves, indicating that the tools are still in the early stages.

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MoonlightDisconnectSwitch

· 7h ago

Data entry jobs using AI actually have a lower unemployment growth rate, which is counterintuitive.

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GateUser-665eb149

· 7h ago

The research sample size is large enough, with over 900 occupations covering quite comprehensively.

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GateUser-744c843b

· 8h ago

AI reduces production costs → demand increases → offsets layoffs, this chain logic makes sense

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DexterRamen

· 8h ago

Which professions are expanding due to AI, accounting for 12%? Curious

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GateUser-3e7da866

· 8h ago

Bookkeeping and this repetitive work are indeed easily replaceable, but demand elasticity saved the day.

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GateUser-0c86a4c9

· 8h ago

Customer service staff trembling in fear

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Mint-ColoredSlippage

· 8h ago

The key is that the number of people using AI is not as many as expected, less than a quarter.

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