Metro area, Colorado
Boulder, CO
192,390 people work in this area, at mean pay of $91,760 a year (BLS, May 2025), in every industry. What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 83 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 48%
- 18%
- 35%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 17% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this area's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 22%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 46% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 3,230 | 43% | 2.9 million | $100K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 2,070 | 64% | 2.8 million | $48K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,440 | 78% | 2.3 million | $57K |
| Project Management Specialists | 2,920 | 33% | 2 million | $122K |
| Software Developers | 7,130 | 14% | 2 million | $165K |
| Retail Salespersons | 4,880 | 19% | 2 million | $39K |
| Registered Nurses | 3,140 | 28% | 1.8 million | $103K |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,510 | 54% | 1.7 million | $60K |
| Computer User Support Specialists | 1,710 | 42% | 1.5 million | $74K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,880 | 36% | 1.4 million | $85K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 1,910 | 35% | 1.4 million | $79K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 1,510 | 43% | 1.3 million | $51K |
People: BLS counts for this area, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this area, else its mean, else the national median. 398 smaller jobs (95,550 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 92% of the area's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole area, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.Software Developers2 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Collect and analyze data on customer demographics, preferences, needs, and buying habits to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand.Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists1.8 million hours90% of the task within reach
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel1.4 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.Software Developers1.4 million hours70% of the task within reach
- Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.Software Developers1.3 million hours79% of the task within reach
- Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design.Software Developers1.1 million hours38% of the task within reach
- Determine system performance standards.Software Developers1.1 million hours98% of the task within reach
- Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.Software Developers963,277 hours99% of the task within reach
- Gather data on competitors and analyze their prices, sales, and method of marketing and distribution.Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists776,853 hours98% of the task within reach
- Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.Software Developers766,941 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in Colorado
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO1,609,350 people23% now, 41% by 2028
- Colorado Springs, CO316,060 people23% now, 39% by 2028
- Fort Collins-Loveland, CO169,430 people22% now, 38% by 2028
- Northwest Colorado nonmetropolitan area132,270 people22% now, 34% by 2028
- Greeley, CO119,540 people21% now, 33% by 2028
- Southwest Colorado nonmetropolitan area108,360 people22% now, 33% by 2028
- Eastern and Southern Colorado nonmetropolitan area70,160 people22% now, 33% by 2028
- Grand Junction, CO67,170 people23% now, 34% by 2028
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this area; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the area's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works