Blue-collar jobs are least likely to be impacted by AI, Microsoft research finds.
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Blue-collar jobs have a new sheen to them as desk workers become increasingly vulnerable to being replaced by artificial intelligence.
Microsoft examined the link between how much certain workers rely on AI tools and the potential impact to their professions, in a new report titled “Occupational Implications of Generative AI.”
The tech giant’s researchers analyzed data from 200,000 anonymized and privacy-scrubbed conversations in the U.S. between users and the tech giant’s AI chatbot companion, Microsoft Bing Copilot, gathered over nine months between January and September 2024.
The analysis, published last week, focused on users seeking assistance from Copilot to complete a task, defined as the “user goal” by researchers. Meanwhile, AI performing a task within the conversation was labelled “AI action.” This determined which work activities generative AI was completing. In some cases, the AI was providing instructions on how to perform a task.
“To illustrate the distinction, if the user is trying to figure out how to print a document, the user goal is to operate office equipment, while the AI action is to train others to use equipment,” the report said.
The researchers found that users were most actively seeking help from AI for “information gathering, writing, and communicating with others,” and these actions were also the most successfully completed tasks by AI.
“On the AI action side, we see that AI often acts in a service role to the human as a coach, advisor, or teacher that gathers information and explains it to the user.”
This has put occupations like interpreters, translators, historians, writers, and sales representatives at the highest risk of AI adoption and impact.
However, blue-collar professionals, many of whom do physical work either with people or machines, were the least likely to be seeking help from AI, and were therefore classified as the occupations least impacted by AI.
This includes roles like dishwashers, massage therapists, roofers, maids, and housekeeping cleaners.
A recent Gallup report showed that it’s mainly white-collar workers increasing AI-use with 27% frequently using AI at work, up 12% since 2024. Industries with the most prolific AI users were tech (50%), professional services (34%), and finance (32%.)
Meanwhile, frequent use of AI by production and frontline workers was flat for two years, from 11% in 2023 to 9% in 2025, per Gallup.
Microsoft’s researchers did note that their measurements were purely focused on large language models (LLMs), and other applications of AI could affect occupations involving operating and monitoring machinery, such as truck driving.
“AI has really transformed white collar work and the skills premiums are shrinking dramatically,” future of work expert Ravin Jesuthasan told CNBC Make It in an interview. “People need to upskill and reskill at real scale and speed.”
He added: “If I’m a plumber, we’re a long, long way from a machine being able to replace me as a plumber, because the set of plumbing fixtures I have in my house look completely different from yours and so the ability of a robot to sort of be able to do that [is small.] So there is a lot more stability.”
Here are the top 10 jobs with the lowest exposure to AI:
- Phlebotomists
- Nursing assistants
- Hazardous materials removal workers
- Helpers, painters, plasterers,
- Embalmers
- Plant and system operators
- Oral and maxillofacial surgeons
- Automotive glass installers and repairers
- Ship engineers
- Tire repairers and changers
Jesuthasan explained that blue-collar roles have evolved in the past few decades and have become more attractive career paths for young people, and with the low risk of AI exposure, blue-collar jobs will only become more popular.
“Two things: One is they [blue-collar jobs] are growing in demand, they’re a lot more stable. But also they are increasingly requiring a lot more technological knowledge, so people who have gotten those skills are saying, ‘It’s not like I’m working on the shop floor, lifting and carrying stuff. I’m actually operating some really complex equipment here.’
“The manufacturing job that in the past was grimy and dirty and grungy is now actually one that pays incredibly well because it’s a much more technical role.”
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