Workers at risk of AI radically changing their jobs aren't too worried about it

• A Pew Research Center analysis highlights the degree to which jobs, industries, and workers might be exposed to AI.
• More exposure for jobs means AI "can either perform their most important activities entirely or help with them" per the report.

Over 27 million Americans are in work where key activities involved in their job could "be replaced or aided by artificial intelligence" — or what Pew Research Center defines in a new analysis as being most exposed to AI.

The new Pew Research Center report highlights findings after reviewing different kinds of activities available on O*NET. This was used to figure out the degree in which different kinds of activities and jobs are exposed to artificial intelligence. The report didn't look at robots or AI-enabled machines.

Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center who wrote the new Pew report, pointed out to Insider that analyzing data or thinking creatively are two examples of work activities that they believed to have high exposure to AI. Pew found 16 of 41 activities looked at could be considered having high exposure to AI.

"In our analysis, jobs are considered more exposed to artificial intelligence if AI can either perform their most important activities entirely or help with them," the report said.

For example, web developers and budget analysts are two jobs with high exposure, while childcare workers and firefighters are two with low exposure. Overall, almost a quarter of US workers were in the least exposed jobs in 2022 per the report. That's slightly higher than the 19% of workers in jobs that are considered most exposed to AI.

Almost 13 million men and about 14.6 million women in 2022, or over 27 Americans total, worked these jobs most exposed to artificial intelligence. The 1.6 million more women than men who are in work that's most exposed to AI could be partly explained, as Kochhar noted, by men tending to be in jobs that are more physically demanding than the jobs women work, like construction work.

In addition to using work activities from O*NET, Pew Research Center used 2022 Current Population Survey data for things like employment estimates and a Pew Research Center survey of US adults from December with a sample size of about 11,000 for the results in the new report.

Kochhar told Insider that it was interesting to see the juxtaposition in the results using the different data sources, which was "workers who are relatively more exposed to AI also seem relatively less concerned about the impact of AI on them personally."

"We are not quite sure why that is, but it may be that with familiarity, workers are more aware of both the pluses and potential negatives to the extent there are of AI," Kochhar added.

Take information and technology for example, one industry more exposed to AI per the report. While some tech workers are worried about how AI will affect them, a lower share of workers part of this industry think it will hurt them more than help over the next 20 years compared to those in this industry who say it will equally help and hurt or those who say more likely to help than hurt over this period, based on Pew's survey results. 37% in this industry said it will equally help and hurt.

Kochhar said his guess behind this is that these workers could include "creators in terms of these technologies that feed into AI."

"And so they, for that reason, see it as part and parcel of what they do," Kochhar said. "It is a technology that is something they're familiar with. It's something that's helping them be creative in their field."

For the professional, scientific, and technical services sector — a sector where roughly half of workers "face a high degree of exposure to AI" — 14% of workers per the survey said AI will hurt more than help them compared to 26% who said the opposite.

While the survey results highlight how US adults feel about AI in their personal work long term, realtors and branding specialists are just two kinds of workers who have found ChatGPT and AI tools helpful in their recent work. An analysis from McKinsey also finds that different kinds of fields could benefit from generative AI as opposed to cutting roles.

While the new report from Pew Research Center doesn't indicate what jobs may be lost because of AI, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that this is going to happen to roles.

"A lot of people working on AI pretend that it's only going to be good; it's only going to be a supplement; no one is ever going to be replaced," he said via The Atlantic. "Jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop."

Has artificial intelligence impacted your job in some way? Reach out to this reporter at mhoff@insider.com to share your story.