What AI Actually Automates
Not all work is created equal. 4,322 tasks across every scored occupation, organized by category and risk level. The inner ring shows task type, the middle ring shows risk severity, and the outer ring shows which jobs those tasks belong to.
Key finding: Routine cognitive tasks — data entry, filing, calculating, scheduling — make up about a quarter of all work tasks but account for the vast majority of high-risk automation. Non-routine interpersonal work (counseling, negotiating, leading) remains almost entirely safe. The question isn't "will AI take my job?" — it's "how much of my job is routine cognitive?"
Methodology
Tasks from the O*NET database are categorized into five types following the Autor-Levy-Murnane framework. Each task is individually scored for AI capability and automation risk.
The sunburst shows three levels: task category (inner), risk severity bucket (middle), and top occupations within each bucket (outer). Outer ring segments with brighter opacity indicate occupations that appear in our news pipeline coverage.