How much of the world’s work can AI agents take over?
The index rates every one of 18,796 occupational task statements for how much of it a current AI agent could carry out, from helping a person to finishing the job alone, and carries the ratings to 433 occupations and 146 countries.
of task time in world employment is at least partly delegable to AI agents in 2026. Only 2.5% can be handed over in full.
of task time can be handed over to an agent in full, given only the goal and access.
Full delegation is most likely for tasks that take a person about twelve minutes.
agreement of a blind human rating of 300 tasks, led by a coauthor with student raters, with the models.
correlation between delegability and AI use across 101 countries (Anthropic Economic Index).
Office work is the most delegable; manual work the least
Share of task weight an agent can at least partly take over, averaged over unit groups with world employment weights. Whiskers: 95% bootstrap interval.
| # | Major group | ADI, % of task time at L2–L3 | ADI | 95% interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 of 9 | 1 · Managers | 81.8 | 78.1–85.1 | |
| 2 of 9 | 4 · Clerical support workers | 78.3 | 74.7–81.7 | |
| 3 of 9 | 2 · Professionals | 69.9 | 67.9–71.9 | |
| 4 of 9 | 3 · Technicians and associate professionals | 64.4 | 62.5–66.4 | |
| 5 of 9 | 5 · Service and sales workers | 39.6 | 34.8–44.6 | |
| 6 of 9 | 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers | 18.4 | 13.1–23.8 | |
| 7 of 9 | 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers | 17.4 | 14.0–21.3 | |
| 8 of 9 | 7 · Craft and related trades workers | 17.4 | 15.5–19.5 | |
| 9 of 9 | 9 · Elementary occupations | 12.3 | 9.1–16.2 |
| # | Major group | ADI3, % of task time at L3 (scale 0–10) | ADI3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 of 9 | 4 · Clerical support workers | 18.4 | |
| 2 of 9 | 3 · Technicians and associate professionals | 4.5 | |
| 3 of 9 | 5 · Service and sales workers | 3.4 | |
| 4 of 9 | 2 · Professionals | 2.4 | |
| 5 of 9 | 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers | 1.7 | |
| 6 of 9 | 1 · Managers | 1.5 | |
| 7 of 9 | 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers | 0.7 | |
| 8 of 9 | 7 · Craft and related trades workers | 0.4 | |
| 9 of 9 | 9 · Elementary occupations | 0.2 |
| Major group | Physical presence | Accountability | Trust and care | Access to systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Managers | 21% | 36% | 52% | 74% |
| 2 · Professionals | 33% | 45% | 50% | 64% |
| 3 · Technicians and associate professionals | 44% | 40% | 38% | 71% |
| 4 · Clerical support workers | 35% | 11% | 18% | 70% |
| 5 · Service and sales workers | 72% | 19% | 44% | 61% |
| 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers | 90% | 27% | 17% | 62% |
| 7 · Craft and related trades workers | 88% | 22% | 8% | 44% |
| 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers | 86% | 30% | 14% | 66% |
| 9 · Elementary occupations | 94% | 16% | 11% | 45% |
Share of task weight flagged by each barrier. Barriers are not exclusive. Bold: 60% or more.
Find your job in the index
| Most delegable | ADI |
|---|---|
| Information technology trainers 2356 | 100.0 |
| Training and staff development professionals 2424 | 100.0 |
| Database designers and administrators 2521 | 100.0 |
| Systems administrators 2522 | 100.0 |
| Accounting associate professionals 3313 | 100.0 |
| Least delegable | ADI |
| Civil engineering labourers 9312 | 0.0 |
| Mining and quarrying labourers 9311 | 0.0 |
| Forestry labourers 9215 | 0.0 |
| Hand launderers and pressers 9121 | 0.0 |
| Pulp and papermaking plant operators 8171 | 0.0 |
Richer countries have more work agents can take over
Each flag is one of 146 countries. The ADI rises 7.23 points per log point of GDP per capita; income alone explains 71% of the spread.
Balam Labs · Agent Delegability Index v2026.1 · balamlabs.org/adi
- 22 Oct 2026Report
The Delegation Divide: ADI Report 2026.1
The results in 48 pages for policy and general readers, with a profile of Colombia by sex, age and formality.
- 22 Oct 2026Data
Dataset v2026.1 on Zenodo
Ratings for every task, scores for every occupation and country, the rubric, and the code that builds them. doi:10.5281/zenodo.23552918
- Oct 2026Changes
Preregistration on OSF
Hypotheses, rubric and analysis plan were registered before the main scoring run. Deviations are listed in the methodology.
Query and cite the index from code
Every record carries its citation. No key, no rate limit.
/adi/v2026.1/isco/2512.jsonOne static file per occupation and per country.
pip install "adi-index @ git+https://github.com/Cespial/delegation-divide#subdirectory=herramientas/adi-index"Then adi lookup 2512.
claude mcp add adi -- adi-mcpFour tools: lookup, country profile, top occupations, cite.