Research check · 25 October 2026
New AI duties in U.S. job ads nearly tripled. That is not a jobs count.
In the occupations where AI use is highest, the share of job-ad duty statements classified as new rose from under 1% in 2022 to nearly 3% in 2026. The result comes from Tom Harris’s October working-paper abstract, not payroll or hiring records.
What was counted
The study examines 18.6 million duty statements in U.S. applicant-tracking-system job pages archived by Common Crawl from 2019 to 2026. It compares descriptions with early-2019 postings, then uses a language model to distinguish a new task from new wording for an old one. Among statements about AI, the share describing work with AI rather than building it rose from 4% in 2022 to 21% in 2026. Existing data-tool duties also spread into occupations that had not previously listed them.
What it cannot answer
A duty in a vacancy is not proof that anyone performed it or was hired to do it. A new duty may replace an old one. The abstract also says an apparent pay premium for ads listing AI duties largely disappears when comparing the same job title at the same firm; that is posted pay, not wages received. The full paper was not accessible in this check, so its classifier tests and coverage cannot be assessed here. Archived ATS pages may miss other recruitment.
Why the distinction matters
Evidence that employers describe new tasks can coexist with weaker payroll employment in exposed occupations. One measures advertised work; the other measures workers on payroll. Neither alone shows how many jobs AI created or removed. A linked study of employer AI use, actual tasks, completed hires and pay would connect them.