Jobs and AI

Administrative and office roles

Clerical and secretarial work is where employers expect the biggest falls in job numbers.

How to read this page. No source gives a reliable "risk score" for individual UK jobs, so we don't invent one. We summarise what named studies say. The Department for Education's report measures exposure to AI (how far AI could touch the abilities a job uses), not whether jobs will be lost or helped, and it says its results "should be interpreted with caution". Read the sources and make up your own mind.

What the evidence says

WEF Future of Jobs 2025: employers expect clerical and secretarial workers, including administrative assistants and executive secretaries, to see the largest decline in absolute numbers by 2030.
DfE (2023) lists national government administrative occupations and human resources administrative occupations in its top 20 for both AI and large language model exposure.
The DfE report notes that research by the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests customer service and administrative roles are among the few where substitution, not just support, is more likely.

What it means in practice

Our summary, based on the sources above. It's general guidance, not a prediction.

  • Scheduling, data entry, minute-taking and routine emails are being automated.
  • Moving towards coordination, operations, project support or office-manager roles is a common route.
  • Useful skills: workflow tools, AI assistants, project management basics.

Next steps

Use the career-switch planner, check free and funded training, or browse new and emerging roles.

Change log

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