On the Automation of Job Tasks: Occupational exposure to Artificial Intelligence and Software

While rapid advances in digital technologies transformed the occupational structures and workers‘ skill and task composition over the past decades, much less is known about how Artificial Intelligence technologies (AI) will shape future labour markets. As part of the “ai:conomics” project, we analyze the extent to which employees subject to social security contributions in Germany are potentially exposed to AI and software technology. Our results show that highly educated, high-income workers are most exposed to AI, while their exposure is lower to software. Overall, the findings suggest that given AI’s far-reaching potential to carry out different sets of tasks, these technologies are expected to impact workers across a wider skill and wage spectrum, which previous automation technologies had limited impact on.