With many companies blaming AI technology for slashing their workforce, Anthropic has introduced a new metric for enterprises to determine where AI is making an impact.
The generative AI vendor released the report on March 5, finding that AI technology has not yet reached its full potential in the workplace.
In the report, the vendor used an “Observed Exposure” metric to look at three data sources. They are whether a large language model (LLM) such as the vendor’s Claude model can perform a task twice as fast as a human; how Claude is actually being used in work-related settings, and how job descriptions show AI’s use in specific roles. Using the specific role metric, Anthropic found that actual AI use in the workplace is lower than thought.
The Claude creator said there has been no systematic increase in unemployment among workers, such as older professionals, women, more educated individuals, and high-paid employees, since 2022. However, hiring of younger workers has decreased, and the job roles most exposed to AI, such as computer programmers, customer service representatives, and those for which writing, reading and research can be automated. At the same time, humans are still not using AI technology to its full potential, according to the report.
Anthropic’s report comes amid an unfavorable job market, in which many companies are blaming layoffs on AI technology. For example, on Feb. 26, Block CEO Jack Dorsey said his company will lay off 4,000 employees to restructure around AI-driven teams. Oracle is also expected to cut jobs as it tries to fulfill its AI data center debt commitments. Other companies, including Pinterest, Salesforce, and HP, have blamed AI for wide-ranging layoffs and plans for layoffs.
What’s Really Going on
These events have affected a job market in which many feel dread that an LLM will snatch their jobs. However, the Anthropic report echoes what some experts have concluded: it’s too early to blame AI for layoffs, since it’s still unclear what effect the technology is having on jobs.
“Given that we’re not quite three-and-a-half years into the AI era, it’s difficult to trust any quantitative measure of impacts on labor,” said Michael Bennett, associate vice chancellor for data science and artificial intelligence strategy at the University of Illinois Chicago.
“Some employers may be using the notion of AI displacement of human workers to help justify cuts they would’ve made anyway,” Bennett continued. “While others are simultaneously seeing signs of actual obsolescence in their workplaces and handing out pink slips.”
Regardless, the layoffs are causing particular concern among programmers and engineers who worry about how AI is changing the coding work they do, Bennett said. AI coding platforms such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex have rapidly become popular and are seen as threatening coding-based jobs.
He added that Anthropic’s Observed Exposure metric is useful for identifying changes AI technology is making in the workplace.
“We need more and more nuanced metrics,” he said. “This one will likely encourage the development of new approaches.”
