Agent Delegability Index: How much of the work can AI agents take over?

The Agent Delegability Index v2026.1, updated October 2026, rates all 18,796 occupational task statements and finds that 35.1% of task time in world employment is at least partly delegable to AI agents in 2026, while only 2.5% can be handed over in full. The index, which covers 433 occupations and 146 countries, reports that each log point of GDP per capita adds 7.23 percentage points of delegable work, ranging from 22.5% in 17 low-income countries to 48.7% in 53 high-income countries. Office work is the most delegable, with managers at 81.8% and clerical support workers at 78.3% of task time at least partly delegable, versus 12.3% for elementary occupations.

v2026.1 · updated October 2026 How much of the world’s work can AI agents take over? The index rates every one of 18,796 occupational task statements for how much of it a current AI agent could carry out, from helping a person to finishing the job alone, and carries the ratings to 433 occupations and 146 countries. of task time in world employment is at least partly delegable to AI agents in 2026. Only 2.5% can be handed over in full. Low income22.5%17 countries https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries?income=low Lower-middle income28.3%33 countries https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries?income=lower-middle Upper-middle income35.0%43 countries https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries?income=upper-middle High income48.7%53 countries https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries?income=high The delegation divide. Each log point of GDP per capita adds 7.23 percentage points of delegable work. Open the country atlas https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries of task time can be handed over to an agent in full, given only the goal and access. Full delegation is most likely for tasks that take a person about twelve minutes. agreement of a blind human rating of 300 tasks, led by a coauthor with student raters, with the models. correlation between delegability and AI use across 101 countries Anthropic Economic Index . Office work is the most delegable; manual work the least Share of task weight an agent can at least partly take over, averaged over unit groups with world employment weights. Whiskers: 95% bootstrap interval. All 433 occupations https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations | | Major group | ADI, % of task time at L2–L3 | ADI | 95% interval | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 of 9 | 1 · Managers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=1 | | 81.8 | 78.1–85.1 | | 2 of 9 | 4 · Clerical support workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=4 | | 78.3 | 74.7–81.7 | | 3 of 9 | 2 · Professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=2 | | 69.9 | 67.9–71.9 | | 4 of 9 | 3 · Technicians and associate professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=3 | | 64.4 | 62.5–66.4 | | 5 of 9 | 5 · Service and sales workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=5 | | 39.6 | 34.8–44.6 | | 6 of 9 | 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=8 | | 18.4 | 13.1–23.8 | | 7 of 9 | 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=6 | | 17.4 | 14.0–21.3 | | 8 of 9 | 7 · Craft and related trades workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=7 | | 17.4 | 15.5–19.5 | | 9 of 9 | 9 · Elementary occupations https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=9 | | 12.3 | 9.1–16.2 | | | Major group | ADI3, % of task time at L3 scale 0–10 | ADI3 | |---|---|---|---| | 1 of 9 | 4 · Clerical support workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=4 | | 18.4 | | 2 of 9 | 3 · Technicians and associate professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=3 | | 4.5 | | 3 of 9 | 5 · Service and sales workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=5 | | 3.4 | | 4 of 9 | 2 · Professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=2 | | 2.4 | | 5 of 9 | 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=8 | | 1.7 | | 6 of 9 | 1 · Managers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=1 | | 1.5 | | 7 of 9 | 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=6 | | 0.7 | | 8 of 9 | 7 · Craft and related trades workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=7 | | 0.4 | | 9 of 9 | 9 · Elementary occupations https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=9 | | 0.2 | | Major group | Physical presence | Accountability | Trust and care | Access to systems | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 · Managers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=1 | 21% | 36% | 52% | 74% | | 2 · Professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=2 | 33% | 45% | 50% | 64% | | 3 · Technicians and associate professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=3 | 44% | 40% | 38% | 71% | | 4 · Clerical support workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=4 | 35% | 11% | 18% | 70% | | 5 · Service and sales workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=5 | 72% | 19% | 44% | 61% | | 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=6 | 90% | 27% | 17% | 62% | | 7 · Craft and related trades workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=7 | 88% | 22% | 8% | 44% | | 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=8 | 86% | 30% | 14% | 66% | | 9 · Elementary occupations https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations?group=9 | 94% | 16% | 11% | 45% | Share of task weight flagged by each barrier. Barriers are not exclusive. Bold: 60% or more. Find your job or country in the index | Most delegable | ADI | |---|---| | Coding, proof-reading and related clerks https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4413 4413 | 100.0 | | Contact centre salespersons https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/5244 5244 | 100.0 | | Clerical support workers not elsewhere classified https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4419 4419 | 100.0 | | Payroll clerks https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4313 4313 | 100.0 | | Accounting associate professionals https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/3313 3313 | 100.0 | | Least delegable | ADI | | Hand launderers and pressers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9121 9121 | 0.0 | | Civil engineering labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9312 9312 | 0.0 | | Mining and quarrying labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9311 9311 | 0.0 | | Laundry machine operators https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/8157 8157 | 0.0 | | Concrete placers, concrete finishers and related workers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/7114 7114 | 0.0 | | Most delegable | ADI3 | |---|---| | Coding, proof-reading and related clerks https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4413 4413 | 67.7 | | Typists and word processing operators https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4131 4131 | 61.9 | | Contact centre salespersons https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/5244 5244 | 43.1 | | Receptionists general https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4226 4226 | 41.5 | | Clerical support workers not elsewhere classified https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4419 4419 | 41.1 | | Least delegable | ADI3 | | Civil engineering labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9312 9312 | 0.0 | | Mining and quarrying labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9311 9311 | 0.0 | | Forestry labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9215 9215 | 0.0 | | Hand launderers and pressers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9121 9121 | 0.0 | | Pulp and papermaking plant operators https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/8171 8171 | 0.0 | | Most delegable | ADIs | |---|---| | Coding, proof-reading and related clerks https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4413 4413 | 79.6 | | Contact centre salespersons https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/5244 5244 | 79.0 | | Clerical support workers not elsewhere classified https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4419 4419 | 75.0 | | Payroll clerks https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4313 4313 | 73.9 | | Typists and word processing operators https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/4131 4131 | 73.8 | | Least delegable | ADIs | | Hand launderers and pressers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9121 9121 | 5.0 | | Civil engineering labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9312 9312 | 5.3 | | Kitchen helpers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9412 9412 | 5.5 | | Mining and quarrying labourers https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/9311 9311 | 5.9 | | Laundry machine operators https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/8157 8157 | 6.4 | Richer countries have more work agents can take over Each flag is one of 146 countries. The ADI rises 7.23 points per log point of GDP per capita; income alone explains 71% of the spread. Explore 146 countries https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries Balam Labs · Agent Delegability Index v2026.1 · balamlabs.org/adi Full delegation peaks for tasks of about twelve minutes The chance that an agent can finish a task end to end on its own rises with task duration up to 11.8 minutes of human work and falls for longer, multi-step tasks. Methodology https://balamlabs.org/adi/methodology takeaways Hover or focus a dot to inspect one of the 20 task-duration bins. Very short tasks are often physical or interpersonal moments; long tasks bundle steps that still need human review. Balam Labs · Agent Delegability Index v2026.1 · balamlabs.org/adi - 22 Oct 2026 The Delegation Divide on arXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30752 The paper: method, the four preregistered hypotheses and their tests. arXiv:2610.30752 econ.GN . Paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30752 - 22 Oct 2026 The Delegation Divide: ADI Report 2026.1 https://balamlabs.org/adi/report The results in 48 pages for policy and general readers, with a profile of Colombia by sex, age and formality. Report https://balamlabs.org/adi/report - 22 Oct 2026 Dataset v2026.1 on Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23552918 Ratings for every task, scores for every occupation and country, the rubric, and the code that builds them. doi:10.5281/zenodo.23552918 Data https://balamlabs.org/adi/data - Oct 2026 Preregistration on OSF https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/9ZNTF Hypotheses, rubric and analysis plan were registered before the main scoring run. Deviations are listed in the methodology. Changes https://balamlabs.org/adi/methodology updates Query and cite the index from code Every record carries its citation. No key, no rate limit. /adi/v2026.1/isco/2512.json One static file per occupation and per country. pip install "adi-index @ git+https://github.com/Cespial/delegation-divide subdirectory=herramientas/adi-index" Then adi lookup 2512 . claude mcp add adi -- adi-mcp Four tools: lookup, country profile, top occupations, cite.