AI changes tasks before it removes jobs

A job is a bundle of tasks. AI rarely takes a whole engineering job at once. It takes some tasks, such as writing boilerplate, first drafts of tests, simple bug fixes and documentation, and leaves others, such as deciding what to build, judging trade-offs, debugging strange production failures and working with people.

The Stanford study found employment falling where AI substitutes for the work and holding or growing where it complements it, especially for experienced people. So ask of your own week: what share of my time is tasks AI already does well, and what share is judgement? The more of your week is the first kind, the more exposed you are, whatever your title.