Overview
1. Automation Risk
2. User Poll
3. Growth
4. Wages
5. Volume
Decription
Resources
Comments

Writers and Authors

Moderate Risk
54%
Where Would You Like to Go Next?
Share your results with friends and family.
Vote Comments (92)
Or, Explore This Profession in Greater Detail...
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
60%
(High Risk)
POLLING
48%
(Moderate Risk)
Average: 54%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
5.1%
by year 2033
WAGES
$73,690
or $35.42 per hour
Volume
49,450
as of 2023
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
4.7/10

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Calculated automation risk

60% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): Jobs in this category face a significant threat from automation, as many of their tasks can be easily automated using current or near-future technologies.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

  • Persuasion

  • Social Perceptiveness

Impact of Chat GPT on this occupation

We've received many comments and emails about Chat GPT and it's impact on this occupation. It's very impressive software, so people are understandably worried and/or excited.

However, something important to note with regards to the score we've calculated here, is that this occupation is comprised of many different types of job roles. Some examples of these include Advertising Writer, Blurb Writer, Copywriter and Screenwriter.

Some roles/tasks are more susceptible than other's to being automated by Chat GPT, but the score we've calculated is one that's an amalgamation of all of them.

Unfortunately, the source for our data (o*net) doesn't split this category up to the individual roles, so we can't calculate a score for each of them. If they do at some point in the future, we'll do the same, and generate scores accordingly.

Writing occupations aren't dead, but they are changing, so the best advice we can offer is to keep up to date with the latest developments, and use the tools available to your advantage.

User poll

48% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 60% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Writers and Authors will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (quarterly)

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Writers and Authors' job openings is expected to rise 5.1% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2024.

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Writers and Authors' was $73,690, or $35 per hour

'Writers and Authors' were paid 53.3% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 49,450 people employed as 'Writers and Authors' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 3 thousand people are employed as 'Writers and Authors'.

Job description

Originate and prepare written material, such as scripts, stories, advertisements, and other material.

SOC Code: 27-3043.00

Resources

Will Chat GPT spell the end of blogging?

Here's a very informative video from Ricky Kesler from Income School about Chat GPT as it relates to blogging (and SEO). We think it contains great advice, and can be applied to all sorts of writing job roles, not just bloggers.

If you're thinking of starting a new career, or looking to change jobs, we've created a handy job search tool which might just help you land that perfect new role.

Search jobs in your local area

Comments

Leave a comment

Sophie (Uncertain) 2 months ago
LLM or Large Language Models like ChatGPT only outputs the material humans write. It also has no creativity, all outputs are based on our interactions, prompts and the existing data. Who creates that data? We do. We write our hearts, emotions out on a piece of writing, causing it to influence people, and we shape the way a person's bias works. What GPT outputs is something emotionless and cannot sway people. How much times have you been through sorrow from reading a book? How much times have you felt sorrow from a piece of text? Probably none.
0 2 Reply
Laurel 3 months ago
I'm an author, and I just thought I'd share my take on this. While it's true that AI can't replicate human emotions and experiences, it has proven to be capable of writing average stories. Too many people consume media without a critical eye. As long as people as a whole start to care more about quality media, we should be fine.
0 0 Reply
Adria Donohue (Low) 3 months ago
Because at the current moment AI does not have to opacity to write a full length story without it being very repetitive and forgetting itself, and will only get worse as time goes on. Furthermore, an AI lacks the very human and unique emotion that a person can write into the story. I have tampered with the world of Artificial Intelligence before, and all the characters it portrays seem to be the same personality, like they've been copy and pasted. This is a problem AI struggles with that even humans suffer with, but humans are more able to fix this fatal error that can ruin a story.
0 0 Reply
Ele (Low) 4 months ago
As a writer myself, AI doesn't scare me because it lacks what writing and stories originally entail: experience. You can have a fantasy dystopia story written by ChatGPT, but it can never hold up to the bar human-made fantasy dystopian stories have set. Why? These stories contain human experiences, they contain a message that authors wish to convey, experiences authors wish to convey. It's the humanity that stories hold that make them loved by people. Any text-based AI can write a story, but will it ever hold the same impact to a story an actual person wrote? No, because AI hasn't experienced anything actual people have experienced. It only "sees" what people witness and puts it into its generation without second thought. The reason people consume stories is because they can relate to it, they learn something from it. I know AI helps breakdown and teach things we can't understand by piecing together information from the internet faster than we can, but for it to write a story? Fat chance. Writing is more than just fast money content (that, sadly, already is in today's times) it is a form of art that records experiences and messages that cannot be conveyed with straightforwardness. It is something that holds bits and pieces of humanity, of someone's memories, of messages that are so big that it can never fit in a simple sentence. No matter how many years it will take, AI can never catch up with how high the bar has been set when it comes to writing.
2 0 Reply
try (Uncertain) 4 months ago
the originality of writing would be the most difficult to program a bot to do.
0 0 Reply
Ray (Low) 4 months ago
Robots will never be able to copy real writers' creativity, although they could help you write a short essay for school, AI cannot do original and creative writing.
2 0 Reply
Human # 7,522,997,653 (Low) 4 months ago
I don't really think AI will take over writing. In my eyes, AI will never capture the thrilling, magical, real experience that humans can create.

Although they have a chance, AI can never reach the same level of imagination that we humans have when it comes to stories and fiction.

Though I have very little hope for humanity in the future, I still believe humans can change for the better.
3 0 Reply
R H DARNELL (Low) 4 months ago
Real writing uses creativity. AI is not creative, AI can only use what you input. It can rhyme, and write grammatically correct sentences, but it cannot convey emotion or elicit a response on a human level. I believe it could write a "good" outline, but not a good screenplay, much less a great book.
2 0 Reply
Pasi (No chance) 4 months ago
It depends on the author, but currently the AI simply can not write a good book.
1 0 Reply
Chris Ochs (Moderate) 6 months ago
News and nonfiction are high. Fantasy, sci-fi, horror novels far less so.
2 0 Reply
Dom (Low) 7 months ago
Creativity, novelty, capturing the social, invention.
2 0 Reply
Rebecca (Low) 7 months ago
Because robots tend to be predictable and writers need imagination and I don't see robots having that
2 0 Reply
Philip Whittebane (Highly likely) 7 months ago
At least many blurb and screenwriting jobs could be automated. Although there would still be the requirement for some level of creativity
2 0 Reply
Tomoko Julius (No chance) 7 months ago
i doubt that any time soon the originality of the human touch will fade away with the coming in of AI. It simply cannot. PERIOD!!!
0 0 Reply
Mike (Highly likely) 7 months ago
Highly only because ChatGPT is used for writing, and it can be used in story making
0 0 Reply
copper (No chance) 8 months ago
the robots simply lack the creativity of a good author like J.K.Rowling or Suzanne Collins.
0 0 Reply
Penguin (No chance) 8 months ago
Robots cannot have experiences. They just spit out a cacophony of random words with no care as to a message or logic or ethics.
0 0 Reply
M (Low) 10 months ago
In the United States, creative material developed by AI cannot be trademarked and therefore unprofitable.
0 0 Reply
David 5 months ago
To be fair, it's difficult to tell whether or not a text was written by AI, especially if the person who generated the prompt refactored the text.
0 0 Reply
Dakshay (Moderate) 10 months ago
If AI keeps improving, certainly studios will start using AI generated scripts to make movies/tv shows/ books. They will be garbage generic stuff in the beginning but at one point AI will certainly be able to write as well as a human. So writers working for studios will be in danger. But I think big established authors like Brandon Sanderson, have planned projects for decades later. And people will still buy their books because they love the stories. I think if you can cultivate a community of dedicated fans, you can definitely make a killing (or at least a livable income.)
Personally, I would hate to see the art of storytelling to be turned over to machines.
0 0 Reply
Tom P (Low) 1 year ago
The creativity of a human cannot be replicated by robots, at least for many decades. It is so complex that we don't even understand it. However, I believe robots could potentially take over short-form content without many underlying creative choices.
0 0 Reply

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