State
Montana
511,580 people work in Montana, at mean pay of $60,880 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: 243 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 38%
- 8%
- 54%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 19% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 24% within reach now and 39% 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, 21%. Today's estimate: 24%.
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 49% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 10,390 | 58% | 13 million | $46K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 6,980 | 76% | 11 million | $47K |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 4,410 | 87% | 8 million | $44K |
| Cashiers | 12,170 | 30% | 7.6 million | $34K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 4,910 | 67% | 6.8 million | $45K |
| Retail Salespersons | 13,490 | 20% | 5.6 million | $36K |
| Registered Nurses | 10,950 | 21% | 4.8 million | $85K |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 14,960 | 15% | 4.7 million | $29K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 4,650 | 48% | 4.6 million | $44K |
| General and Operations Managers | 11,840 | 19% | 4.6 million | $91K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 4,030 | 47% | 3.9 million | $63K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 4,350 | 42% | 3.8 million | $77K |
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. 570 smaller jobs (253,160 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 96% 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.
- Perform personnel activities, such as supervising and training employees.Fast Food and Counter Workers4.5 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan, organize, and control the operations of a cocktail lounge or bar.Bartenders3.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons3.3 million 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 Nurses3.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General2.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks2.3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Establish or implement departmental policies, goals, objectives, or procedures in conjunction with board members, organization officials, or staff members.General and Operations Managers2.1 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General1.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers1.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Perform bookkeeping duties, such as credits or collections, preparing and sending financial statements or bills, and keeping financial records.Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants1.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
Metro and nonmetro areas in Montana
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Billings, MT93,800 people24% now, 36% by 2028
- West Montana nonmetropolitan area84,190 people24% now, 36% by 2028
- Bozeman, MT72,210 people23% now, 37% by 2028
- Missoula, MT67,070 people24% now, 38% by 2028
- East-Central Montana nonmetropolitan area60,160 people24% now, 35% by 2028
- Helena, MT44,420 people25% now, 44% by 2028
- Southwest Montana nonmetropolitan area39,080 people23% now, 34% by 2028
- Great Falls, MT36,510 people25% now, 36% 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