Mapping AI Exposure Across America's Workforce

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the way people work, understanding where and how AI can perform occupational tasks has become an increasingly important question for policymakers, educators, employers, and workers alike. Teddy Wright, a Computer Science student in the University of Utah's new AI major, has spent the past year helping answer that question through research conducted with the Utah Department of Commerce's Office of AI Policy.

 

Working alongside Alice C. Schwarze of Dartmouth College and Zach M. Boyd, Director of the Office of AI Policy, Teddy contributed to a project examining AI exposure across the U.S. workforce. Conducted through the Office of AI Policy within the Utah Department of Commerce and funded through Brigham Young University, the project brings together expertise from academia and government to better understand AI's growing economic capabilities.

 

The research combines real-world AI usage data from Anthropic and Microsoft with federal labor data to create a more actionable understanding of what AI systems can currently perform. The team developed a large language model classification pipeline that maps agentic AI capabilities onto more than 17,000 economic tasks. AI tools were also used throughout the research process to support data cleaning and visualization.

 

The project addresses a key challenge facing society today: how to accurately measure what AI can do in an economic context. By connecting real-world AI activity with occupational task data, the research provides insights that can help inform public policy, workforce development strategies, and the redesign of educational programs.

 

Their findings suggest that 37.9% of economy-wide work time is currently exposed to AI capabilities, representing approximately 58 million full-time-equivalent workers and $4.1 trillion in wages. The team is currently finalizing a research paper and interactive public dashboard that will make these findings more accessible to policymakers, educators, students, and members of the workforce seeking to better understand AI's economic impact.

 

The work has already drawn significant interest. Findings have been presented to Utah policymakers and shared at a university conference in Arizona. A research poster has also been accepted for presentation at the ACM Conference on Collective Intelligence in September 2026.

 

Beyond this project, Teddy is actively involved in the University of Utah's AI community. In addition to pursuing the university's new AI major, he has conducted research on AI-assisted qualitative research methods through the University's Summer Program for Undergraduate Research with Drs. Vineet Pandey and Sara Yeo. He is also serving as co-chair of this year's Student AI Symposium alongside Reese Van Dyke and Dhruv Patil, helping create opportunities for students to share research, ideas, and innovations in AI.

 

Teddy's work demonstrates how students are contributing to meaningful advances in AI research while helping society better understand the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies. From workforce policy to research innovation, University of Utah students are helping shape conversations about the future of AI and its impact on our communities.

 

 

For more information contact:  teddy.wright@utah.edu