There’s this certain category of human work that economists clearly want to put in a horrible basket marked “not worth paying for because AI can do it.” This group includes some outliers—model, for instance—but it’s mainly jobs in customer service, sales, administration. Many of these jobs are done from a desk, and involve interfacing between people and systems. There’s real data now about what’s happening to these jobs in the AI era, and the trend is not great—although it’s clearly too soon to panic. Most notably, the year-long period ending in May of 2025 saw the raw number of customer service representatives drop by 130,180, a troubling 4.8% decrease. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) singled out 18 of these “artificial intelligence related occupations” as part of a 2024 report. It’s an intriguing list. Are you on it?
Paralegals and legal assistants Graphic designers Broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys Technical writers Interpreters and translators Insurance sales agents Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products Models Sales engineers Procurement clerks Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks Customer service representatives Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants Legal secretaries and administrative assistants Medical secretaries and administrative assistants Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive On Friday, in an annual data dump from BLS, it emerged that a depression in these “artificial intelligence related occupations” really does appear to be happening. This category was down by 0.2% from May of 2024 to May of 2025, a tiny drop, but one made more notable by employment in general trending up 0.8% in the same time period.
