Will AI Replace Business Analysts?

Among the most exposed occupations measured, ranked 23 of 785. Employment is projected to grow +10.1% by 2035, from 1.1 million jobs today.

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Where this job sits against every other

Least exposed785 occupationsMost exposed
#23 of 785 occupations, ordered by AI exposure

Each column is a slice of the 785 occupations Microsoft measured for how much of their work today's AI can do. Business analysts sit in the blue column.

So the two measures point in opposite directions. AI reaches a lot of this work, and the projection still has the occupation growing. Exposure is not the same thing as replacement.

What the job is made of

The biggest single piece of this job is “Communicate with others about business strategies”, at 15.8% of the work. The column on the right is a different measure entirely: out of every time someone asked AI to do that activity, how often it actually got it right. It counts attempts people made, so a high number does not mean the work has moved to AI. It means AI is capable of that task when asked.

Share of the jobAI success rate
Communicate with others about business strategies
15.8%
95% of attempts
Develop operational or technical procedures or standards
12.5%
92% of attempts
Advise others on business or operational matters
11.5%
92% of attempts
Gather data about operational or development activities
10.2%
78% of attempts
Analyze business or financial data
10.0%
82% of attempts
Present research or technical information
8.7%
90% of attempts

11 activities make up this occupation in the government's classification. The six here are the ones that define it most.

AI is weakest at “Gather data about operational or development activities”, which is 10.2% of this job. Asked to do it, it finishes correctly 78% of the time. The work it handles well sits above 90%.

The numbers behind it

1.1 millionpeople doing this work
+10.1%projected change by 2035
$101,860median pay, US

Employment and pay are United States figures, the only country publishing this per occupation. The work activities and the AI measurements are not country specific.

There are about 94,000 openings a year here, counting people who retire or move on as well as new positions.

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