Will AI replace Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive?

What this score means

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is among the more exposed roles in Administration. A large share of the work, especially its routine and text heavy parts, is already within reach of current AI, though the harder judgment calls still need a person. At 58 out of 100 it scores 6 points above the Administration average of 52. Across the 11 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 48 to 69, so the score is a weighted consensus rather than any single figure.

The number is a consensus estimate for the typical version of the role, built from published academic and industry research scored occupation by occupation. It is not a prediction about any individual. How scoring works

What this job actually involves

Exposure follows the work itself rather than the job title, so it is worth seeing what the role is made of. These are the tasks O*NET records for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive, most central first, showing 12 of 31.

• 01Use computers for various applications, such as database management or word processing.
• 02Answer telephones and give information to callers, take messages, or transfer calls to appropriate individuals.
• 03Greet visitors or callers and handle their inquiries or direct them to the appropriate persons according to their needs.
• 04Create, maintain, and enter information into databases.
• 05Operate office equipment, such as fax machines, copiers, or phone systems and arrange for repairs when equipment malfunctions.
• 06Set up and manage paper or electronic filing systems, recording information, updating paperwork, or maintaining documents, such as attendance records, correspondence, or other material.
• 07Operate electronic mail systems and coordinate the flow of information, internally or with other organizations.
• 08Schedule and confirm appointments for clients, customers, or supervisors.
• 09Maintain scheduling and event calendars.
• 10Compose, type, and distribute meeting notes, routine correspondence, or reports, such as presentations or expense, statistical, or monthly reports.
• 11Complete forms in accordance with company procedures.
• 12Locate and attach appropriate files to incoming correspondence requiring replies.

Task statements from O*NET by the National Center for O*NET Development, used under CC BY 4.0. The tasks are descriptive; the exposure score above is ours.

The research behind this score

This baseline aggregates 11 research sources that scored Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.

• 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026Anthropic
• 02Crashing Waves vs. Rising Tides: Preliminary Findings on AI Automation from Thousands of Worker Evaluations of Labor Market Tasks · 2026Mertens, Thompson et al., MIT FutureTech (2026)
• 03Global Automation Atlas: Task Substitution Exposure by Occupation · 2026Garg, Crosta, Baier (2026), arXiv:2605.17086
• 04The AI Jobs Transition Framework: Mapping AI's Near-Term Impact on Jobs · 2026OpenAI Economic Research (2026)
• 05WORKBank: Expert-Rated Automation Capacity of Occupational Tasks · 2026Shao, Zope, Jiang, Pei, Nguyen, Brynjolfsson, Yang, Stanford (2026)
• 06Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure · 2025International Labour Organization, Working Paper 140 (2025)
• 07Working with AI: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations · 2025Tomlinson, Jaffe et al., Microsoft Research (2025)
• 08A new future of work: The race to deploy AI and raise skills in Europe and beyond · 2024McKinsey Global Institute (2024)
• 09GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin, Rock (Science, 2024)
• 10AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023Felten, Raj, Seamans (2023)
• 11Generative AI and the Future of Work in America · 2023McKinsey Global Institute (2023)

Common questions

How likely is AI to replace Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive?

Published research puts Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive at 58 out of 100 for AI displacement risk, in the transitioning band. The number is a weighted consensus of 11 research sources and describes the typical version of the role, not any individual.

Do researchers agree on the risk for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive?

Only partly. Individual estimates for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive run from 48 to 69 out of 100 across the 11 sources behind this score, so the single number smooths over real disagreement. More recent and higher confidence studies carry more weight in it.

Which administration roles face similar AI exposure?

The closest published administration roles to Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive by score are Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks (58/100), Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance (58/100), and Office Clerks, General (58/100). Each has its own page with the research behind its number.

Also covers

Administrative Assistant (Admin Assistant) · Administrative Associate · Administrative Clerk · Administrative Coordinator · Administrative Liaison · Administrative Resources Associate · Administrative Secretary (Admin Secretary) · Administrative Specialist (Admin Specialist) and related titles

More administration occupations

• Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants59/100
• Order Clerks59/100
• Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks58/100
• Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance58/100
• Office Clerks, General58/100
• Billing and Posting Clerks57/100
• Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs57/100
• Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants57/100