Study puts AI and robot reach at about 81% of US work
Anthropic found that robots currently cost less than human workers for just 0.3% of tasks, despite their broader technical capabilities.
Combining robots with artificial intelligence models could put about 81% of American work within the technologies’ capabilities, according to a new Anthropic study. But the company found that using robots is currently cheaper than employing people for only 0.3% of tasks.
The research builds on Anthropic’s examination of chatbots and employment. AI models by themselves can cover roughly half of work, the study found, while robots extend that reach into lower-paid physical occupations.
Transportation showed a substantial difference: AI models alone exposed fewer than 15% of tasks, compared with about 90% when robots were included. Vehicle drivers accounted for nine of the ten occupations with the greatest exposure, with taxi drivers ranking first.
Anthropic estimated that robots have the technical ability to perform about 74% of physical tasks, though most require tightly controlled environments such as assembly lines. About 300,000 US workers, mainly packers and packagers, have jobs in which robots already offer a cost advantage.
A 20% reduction in robot prices would increase that figure to about 2.8 million workers, the study estimated. Claude produced the ratings with web searches. Anthropic cautioned that exposure to the technologies does not necessarily translate into lost jobs.
