We are delighted to announce that the paperAI, Task Changes in Jobs, and Worker Reallocation (IZA DP No. 17554) byChristina Gathmann (LISER and IZA),Felix Grimm (LISER), andErwin Winkler (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and IZA) been selected for the 2025 IZA Award for Innovative Research on a Pressing Public Issue (IRPPI). As AI continues to transform industries worldwide, the IRPPI Award recognizes research that deepens our understanding of these rapid technological shifts.

The study provides a crucial analysis of how artificial intelligence is reshaping labor markets, focusing on the reallocation of workers due to AI-driven changes in job tasks. It addresses one of today’s most critical economic concerns: the impact of AI on employment structures and worker transitions.

Using novel patent-based measures of AI and robot exposure, the authors analyze individual survey data on job tasks and administrative data on worker careers to understand these shifts. The study finds that while robots primarily reduce routine tasks, AI has a distinct impact by reducing non-routine abstract tasks, such as information gathering, while increasing the demand for ‘high-level’ routine tasks like monitoring processes.

These task shifts mainly occur within detailed occupations and become more pronounced over time. Although displacement effects are relatively small, workers respond by switching jobs, often moving to less AI-exposed industries. The study also highlights differences in wage effects: while low-skilled workers tend to experience wage losses due to AI-induced changes, high-skilled incumbent workers generally see wage gains.

The award-winning research “represents the best of modern labor economics,” according to the selection committee consisting ofKristina McElheran (University of Toronto) andAndrew Oswald (IZA and University of Warwick). The award comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

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Download the paper here:AI, Task Changes in Jobs, and Worker Reallocation

For more information on the labor market implications of AI, see also:

IZA Spotlight newsletter special issue on Automation and AI: The Future of Work?

IZA World of Labor article by Nick Drydakis onAI and Labor Market Outcomes

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