AI exposure: Writers and Authors
Originate and prepare written material, such as scripts, stories, advertisements, and other material.
Reading this score
computedWriters and Authors sits in the top 2% of every occupation measured. 65.7% 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 1.43 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 Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers,..., at 93.3%. The least is Collaborate with other writers on specific projects, at 11.7%. A gap of 81.7% 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 1 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 20 tasks, 19 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 1 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take capability alone, since there is little structural friction here to slow adoption once a system can do the work. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers, directors, or producers. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Edit or rewrite existing written material as necessary, and submit written material for approval by supervisor, editor, or publisher. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.67 | exposed |
| Conduct research to obtain factual information and authentic detail, using sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, and interviews. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.65 | exposed |
| Review advertising trends, consumer surveys, and other data regarding marketing of goods and services to determine the best way to promote products. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.18 | exposed |
| Vary language and tone of messages based on product and medium. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.53 | exposed |
| Write articles, bulletins, sales letters, speeches, and other related informative, marketing and promotional material. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.53 | exposed |
| Write advertising material for use by publication, broadcast, or internet media to promote the sale of goods and services. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.38 | exposed |
| Write to customers in their terms and on their level so that the script, story, or advertisement message is more readily received. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Invent names for products and write the slogans that appear on packaging, brochures and other promotional material. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 2.75 | exposed |
| Write fiction or nonfiction prose, such as short stories, novels, biographies, articles, descriptive or critical analyses, and essays. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Prepare works in appropriate format for publication, and send them to publishers or producers. | 65.0% | 10.0% | 25.0% | 4.35 | exposed |
| Develop advertising campaigns for a wide range of clients, working with an advertising agency's creative director and art director to determine the best way to present advertising information. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.00 | exposed |
| Conduct research and interviews to determine which of a product's selling features should be promoted. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.08 | exposed |
| Work with staff to develop script, story, or advertising concepts. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Consult with sales, media and marketing representatives to obtain information on product or service and discuss style and length of advertising written material. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.45 | exposed |
| Plan project arrangements or outlines, and organize material accordingly. | 45.8% | 16.7% | 37.5% | 4.12 | exposed |
| Discuss with the client the product, advertising themes and methods, and any changes that should be made in advertising copy. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Follow appropriate procedures to get copyrights for completed work. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.36 | exposed |
| Present drafts and ideas to clients. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.69 | exposed |
| Collaborate with other writers on specific projects. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.20 | 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 | 3.27 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.17 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.60 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.45 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.43 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.00 | 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.