Industrial-Organizational Psychologists
In short: today's best AI models could do about 21% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 74% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 16% of the time, stays with people.
Apply principles of psychology to human resources, administration, management, sales, and marketing problems. Activities may include policy planning; employee testing and selection, training, and development; and organizational development and analysis. May work with management to organize the work setting to improve worker productivity.
790 people do this job in the US. $193,950 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on9 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet25 h
- Stays with people6 h
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 9 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 25 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 6 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion (about 1 h); Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs (about 1 h); Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions (about 1 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 84%
- 15%
- 1%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 2%. Today's estimate: 21%.
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.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.27% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 85th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 6 of its 25 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.38% to 0.26% (released February and March 2025); 0.34% to 0.5% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.29% to 0.27% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.38% | 52 of 708 | 16 of 25 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.26% | 77 of 703 | 14 of 25 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.34% | 53 of 655 | 10 of 25 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.37% | 44 of 672 | 12 of 25 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.5% | 38 of 677 | 11 of 25 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.29% | 79 of 434 | 6 of 25 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.27% | 85 of 447 | 6 of 25 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 25 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 8% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 31%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 8% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 31%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Facilitate organizational development and change.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.7 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, or promotion.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Formulate and implement training programs, applying principles of learning and individual differences.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Study organizational effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency, including the nature of workplace supervision and leadership.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 8% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks | 5%Half by Apr 2028 | |
| Conduct research studies of physical work environments, organizational structures, communication systems, group interactions, morale, or motivation to assess organizational functioning.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 1.7 work weeks1.7 work days to 1.5 work months | 1%Half by Oct 2028 | |
| Write articles, white papers, or reports to share research findings and educate others.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 31%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 4% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 1.3 work days | 93%Half by now | |
| Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge or to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 2.5 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 18%Half by Jun 2027 | |
| Identify training and development needs.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.5 work days | 55%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 21% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 74% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (51% to 83% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion (93% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs (31% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions (31% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Facilitate organizational development and change; Train clients to administer human resources functions, including testing, selection, and performance management; and Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Together such tasks are about 16% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.27% went to this job's tasks, the 85th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 6 of its 25 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 16%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 25 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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