AI exposure: Editors
Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material. May review proposals and drafts for possible publication.
Reading this score
computedEditors sits in the top 3% of every occupation measured. 63.1% of what this job consists of, weighted by how important each task is to the role, is work current AI systems can produce with little standing in the way. Very few occupations score this high. The ones that do tend to share a trait: the output is a document, a calculation or a message, and nobody has to be in a particular room for it to count.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is context at 1.58 out of 3 and the weakest is embodiment at 0.17, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax, at 93.3%. The least is Oversee publication production, at 10.0%. A gap of 83.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 40 roles in the group is 36.4%, and only 2 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 22 tasks, 20 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 2 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.59 | exposed |
| Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Review and approve proofs submitted by composing room prior to publication production. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.11 | exposed |
| Read, evaluate and edit manuscripts or other materials submitted for publication, and confer with authors regarding changes in content, style or organization, or publication. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 3.97 | exposed |
| Read material to determine index items and arrange them alphabetically or topically, indicating page or chapter location. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 3.62 | exposed |
| Make manuscript acceptance or revision recommendations to the publisher. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 3.36 | exposed |
| Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Respond to questions from the public. | 77.8% | 22.2% | 0.0% | 4.10 | exposed |
| Write text, such as headlines, stories, articles, editorials, or newsletters. | 68.5% | 14.8% | 16.7% | 4.61 | exposed |
| Allocate print space for story text, photos, and illustrations according to space parameters and copy significance, using knowledge of layout principles. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Plan the contents of publications according to the publication's style, editorial policy, and publishing requirements. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.56 | exposed |
| Select local, state, national, and international news items received from wire services, based on assessment of items' significance and interest value. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Confer with management and editorial staff members regarding placement and emphasis of developing news stories. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Assign topics, events and stories to individual writers or reporters for coverage. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.15 | exposed |
| Monitor news-gathering operations to ensure utilization of all news sources, such as press releases, telephone contacts, radio, television, wire services, and other reporters. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.12 | exposed |
| Meet frequently with artists, typesetters, layout personnel, marketing directors, and production managers to discuss projects and resolve problems. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.57 | exposed |
| Arrange for copyright permissions. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.22 | exposed |
| Supervise and coordinate work of reporters and other editors. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Direct the policies and departments of newspapers, magazines and other publishing establishments. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Interview and hire writers and reporters or negotiate contracts, royalties, and payments for authors or freelancers. | 18.5% | 23.2% | 58.3% | 3.46 | untouched |
| Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 3.14 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.17 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.72 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.39 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.58 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.80 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.