Artificial intelligence is reshaping not only how work is done but also who performs it, with employees increasingly using AI tools for tasks that have traditionally belonged to other professions, according to a new report from OpenAI, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Analyzing more than 800,000 work-related messages from U.S. ChatGPT users linked to ChatGPT Business accounts, researchers found that 16.8% of all work-related requests involved tasks traditionally associated with a different occupation. When routine, broadly shared activities such as writing emails or scheduling meetings were excluded, cross-occupation tasks accounted for 43.5% of occupation-specific messages.
The study examined 8 occupational groups: customer experience, design, engineering, finance, human resources, legal, marketing, and sales. Using the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational database, OpenAI compared users' reported roles with the tasks they asked ChatGPT to perform. Researchers describe this phenomenon as "task crossover," where work historically associated with one profession is increasingly carried out by people in another with AI assistance.
According to the report, marketing and engineering tasks are the most likely to spread across different occupations. Employees outside those fields frequently use AI to create marketing materials, troubleshoot software, calculate financial data, and explain regulations or policies. Meanwhile, workers in design, sales, and human resources are more likely than others to use AI for work outside their traditional responsibilities.
OpenAI also found that cross-occupation AI use is more common in smaller organizations. Among typical users, cross-occupation tasks accounted for 18.9% of work-related messages in workspaces with 2 to 5 seats, compared with 16.3% in workspaces with 101 or more seats. Researchers suggest that employees at smaller organizations may rely on AI to complete work that would otherwise require help from a specialist or another department.
The report emphasizes that the findings do not indicate that occupations are disappearing or that AI is replacing workers. Instead, the research suggests AI is changing how work is divided by allowing employees to take on a broader range of tasks while specialists remain essential for expert judgment, review, and accountability.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.6 with a new flagship Sol model.