World4 min(s) read
Published 14:20 26 May 2026 GMT
It’s been a huge few weeks for OpenAI after the company released two major reports examining how artificial intelligence could completely reshape the future of work.
One report focused on which professions are most vulnerable to being lost to AI, while the second proposed a dramatic overhaul of working life, including encouraging companies to test four-day working weeks without cutting employees' salaries.
The first report, titled The AI Jobs Transition Framework, explores which industries are most exposed to automation and how AI may impact millions of workers in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s second paper, Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First, outlines a broad set of policy suggestions designed to ensure workers benefit from AI advances rather than being left behind.
Among the biggest proposals is a call for governments to encourage businesses and unions to trial 32-hour workweeks with no reduction in pay.
According to OpenAI, employers should test “32 hour, four-day workweek pilots with no loss in pay that hold output and service levels constant.”
The company also suggested workers could potentially choose whether the time saved through AI productivity becomes a permanently shorter workweek, additional paid leave, or a mix of both.
The idea behind the proposal is that gains created by AI technology should improve workers’ lives, not simply increase profits for companies.
OpenAI additionally argued businesses should strengthen benefits for employees as AI takes over more repetitive work, including boosting retirement contributions, helping cover healthcare costs and subsidising childcare.
Not everyone believes the idea will be easy to implement, though.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Gina Neff from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy said: “The idea of paying workers for efficiency gains from revolutionary tech is not new.”
However, she added: “OpenAI wants other companies to pay workers more while also paying them for subscriptions to their services.
“The ideas in this policy might work, but doing so will take a complete change in political headwinds.”
Alongside the policy proposals, OpenAI also released findings about which sectors may be most heavily affected by AI tools.
The company’s chief economist, Ronnie Chatterji, analyzed more than 900 occupations, covering roughly 153.7 million US jobs, to assess where AI could have the greatest impact.
According to the report, not every role exposed to AI is necessarily at immediate risk of disappearing.
OpenAI divided jobs into four categories. Around 18 percent were labelled at serious automation risk, while 24 percent could see workforce reductions despite still needing human workers for certain tasks.
Another 12 percent of jobs may actually expand because AI makes those industries more efficient and accessible. The report highlighted software developers and physical therapists as examples where increased productivity could create even greater demand.
The largest category, making up 46 percent of jobs studied, is not expected to experience major disruption in the near future.
The report also ranked industries based on how capable AI already is of performing their tasks.
The sectors considered most theoretically exposed to AI included:
Meanwhile, industries already heavily using AI relative to their potential included legal work, design and media, and computer-related jobs.
The report warned that some sectors may still face major disruption because AI capabilities are advancing faster than workplaces are currently adapting.
Management, business operations, and office support roles were highlighted as areas where AI use still lags behind what the technology may already be capable of doing.
Despite concerns over automation, OpenAI stressed that AI exposure alone does not automatically mean jobs will disappear.
The report stated: “Exposure helps us understand where AI has technical capability.
“It cannot, on its own tell us which jobs are most likely to be automated, redesigned, or expanded in the near term.”
The company also warned that failing to properly manage the transition could deepen inequality, with wealthier communities benefiting from AI advancements while others risk being excluded from new opportunities.
OpenAI described the reports as “the beginning of the broader conversation,” saying governments, businesses, communities and families all need to start discussing what the future of work should look like in an AI-driven world.
