Metro area, Arkansas
Fort Smith, AR-OK
95,560 people work in this area, at mean pay of $50,300 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: 40 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 32%
- 17%
- 51%
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, 2%. 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 56% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Service Representatives | 1,860 | 64% | 2.5 million | $38K |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,900 | 54% | 2.1 million | $37K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 960 | 78% | 1.5 million | $45K |
| Registered Nurses | 2,180 | 28% | 1.3 million | $80K |
| Retail Salespersons | 2,880 | 19% | 1.2 million | $28K |
| General and Operations Managers | 2,320 | 23% | 1.1 million | $70K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 2,240 | 19% | 885,248 | $32K |
| Cashiers | 2,180 | 19% | 838,864 | $27K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 940 | 40% | 789,902 | $31K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 630 | 59% | 770,515 | $34K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 1,100 | 32% | 729,874 | $62K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 960 | 35% | 690,895 | $57K |
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. 302 smaller jobs (38,610 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 93% 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.
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General475,900 hours100% of the task within reach
- Obtain and examine all relevant information to assess validity of complaints and to determine possible causes, such as extreme weather conditions that could increase utility bills.Customer Service Representatives420,964 hours100% of the task within reach
- Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.Customer Service Representatives388,273 hours100% of the task within reach
- Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.Registered Nurses365,253 hours60% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons348,971 hours50% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers320,537 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks312,200 hours100% of the task within reach
- Check to ensure that appropriate changes were made to resolve customers' problems.Customer Service Representatives299,383 hours80% of the task within reach
- Direct and coordinate activities of businesses or departments concerned with the production, pricing, sales, or distribution of products.General and Operations Managers296,657 hours40% of the task within reach
- Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers283,611 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in Arkansas
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR358,210 people23% now, 36% by 2028
- Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR275,180 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- North Arkansas nonmetropolitan area119,300 people22% now, 30% by 2028
- South Arkansas nonmetropolitan area117,350 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- West Arkansas nonmetropolitan area85,640 people21% now, 29% by 2028
- East Arkansas nonmetropolitan area68,080 people21% now, 29% by 2028
- Jonesboro, AR60,620 people22% now, 31% by 2028
- Hot Springs, AR38,600 people22% now, 31% 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