Businesses Are Using AI to Automate Work, Replace Human Jobs

AI is mainly automating work instead of enhancing it, which is leading the technology to be a catalyst for replacing jobs, according to a new study.

AI startup Anthropic, which was valued at $183 billion earlier this month, released a new report on Monday showing that more than three in four (77%) of the businesses using Claude did so to automate tasks. In comparison, only 12% of businesses used Claude to augment or enhance work.

“The 77% automation rate suggests enterprises use Claude to delegate tasks, rather than as a collaborative tool,” the report stated. “Given clear automation patterns in business deployment, this may also bring disruption in labor markets, potentially displacing those workers whose roles are most likely to face automation.”

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The report found that, so far, businesses are mainly using Claude to write code and perform administrative tasks. Claude can generate code, similar to other tools like Replit and Cursor, that create blocks of code from text prompts. In fact, the tools are powerful enough to potentially take over coding for software engineers. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted at a Council on Foreign Relations event in March that AI would write every line of code for software engineers within a year.

“In 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Amodei said at the event.

^{Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images for HubSpot}

Additionally, Anthropic emphasized in the report that AI risks causing mass layoffs and worker displacement due to automation. Amodei weighed in on this matter earlier this year, predicting in May that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within the next five years, causing unemployment to reach 10% to 20%. AI could affect entry-level work in fields like law, technology, and finance, Amodei stated.

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Anthropic’s Head of Economics, Peter McCrory, told Bloomberg that the researchers were not sure whether the reliance on automation found in the report was due to “new model capabilities” allowing AI to take on more duties, or due to “people being more comfortable” with AI and “more willing to delegate certain tasks to Claude.”

In other words, the researchers were uncertain whether high levels of automation were due to AI’s increased capabilities or more people being willing to use the technology.

Understanding the reason presents “an important area of research for the future,” McCrory told the outlet.