The Jobs Most Likely to Be Affected by Artificial Intelligence in Oregon

April 23, 2026

The potential labor market impacts of emerging artificial intelligence technologies have been studied by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Projections program assessed current evidence to determine whether enough is known to support a conclusion about the direction and magnitude of the technology’s future impact on the labor market. Findings were incorporated into BLS industry and occupational projections. 

In Oregon, the BLS’ research on the potential labor market impacts of AI are incorporated into Oregon’s 2024-2034 long-term industry and occupational projections. This article unpacks the industries and occupations expected to experience employment demand increases, decreases, and offsetting effects due to AI development and adoption.

Artificial Intelligence – A Rapidly Evolving Technology

Artificial intelligence is defined in Merriam Webster as the capability of computer systems or algorithms to imitate intelligent behavior. While working AI technologies have existed since the early 1950s, the invention of Transformer technology in 2017 led to new types of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI (GenAI) such as Open AI’s Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT1). 

Public access to these tools became available in 2022 and sparked conversations about the potential of AI technologies to increase productivity, allowing more work to be performed by the same number or fewer people, transforming how we live and work. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the U.S. economy has expanded throughout many periods of technological progress such as electrification, the adoption of the internal combustion engine, and computerization of the workforce—all of which increased productivity and living standards. These changes were viewed as at least as important as AI is today.  

Assumptions, Limitations, and Incorporating Expected Change

Oregon’s long-term industry and occupational employment projections incorporate the BLS’ assumption that the pace of structural change in the economy will follow its historical pattern of occurring gradually, with job displacement due to technological change taking longer than technologists expect. Oregon’s long-term employment projections follow BLS methodology which “connects the potential employment impacts of a new technology with data trends” to “determine whether these impacts are likely to diminish as the benefits of the technology are fully realized.” 

It can take time for employers and workers to learn how to incorporate new technologies into business practices. New technologies may also alter the types of tasks performed in an occupation even if they do not impact demand for employment. Future governmental policies such as regulation and funding may also affect employment patterns. However, employment projections for the U.S. and Oregon are based on current law.  

In cases where the direction and magnitude of expected change are clear, these changes are integrated into national projections through mechanisms such as change factors for detailed occupations within industries, which are applied to Oregon’s occupational employment projections. As productivity gains from AI technologies translate to employment impacts in Oregon, these impacts are captured in the industry data which directly influence employment projections. For cases where employment may not currently be impacted, research-based judgement may be used and is typically applied conservatively. 

As Oregon’s employment projections are updated annually, information that helps clarify the impacts of AI technologies will be incorporated into future projections data. The following sections will look at select industries and occupations in Oregon where employment is expected to be impacted due to the development and adoption of AI technologies from 2024 to 2034.

Industry and Occupational Employment Impacts

Oregon’s total employment is projected to grow by 6% (+140,600 jobs) between 2024 and 2034, reflecting modest job growth in the economy. AI technologies have the potential to increase or decrease employment demand. Industries and occupations associated with the development, implementation, and underlying infrastructure of AI technologies are largely expected to see employment demand increases and relatively fast growth from 2024 to 2034 in Oregon. Occupations whose core tasks can be most easily replicated by GenAI in its current form are more likely to experience limited employment demand, relatively slower growth, or employment declines over the coming decade. These impacts may also be offset by other factors such as strong underlying demand driven by factors such as demographics. 

Professional and Technical Services

Management, scientific, and technical consulting services and scientific research and development within the professional and technical service industry are both expected to experience an increase in employment demand due to the development and business adoption of new AI technologies over the decade from 2024 to 2034. The scientific research and development industry is where much of the development of new technologies takes place. Oregon’s scientific research and development industry is projected to add roughly 1,200 jobs over the decade and grow by 19%, more than three times the projected rate for Oregon’s employment as a whole (6%).

Management, scientific, and technical consulting services is expected to grow rapidly over the decade in Oregon, growing from roughly 20,700 jobs in 2024 to 26,200 jobs by 2034 (+27%). According to the BLS, employers are expected to turn to Information Technology (IT) consulting firms to learn how to incorporate AI technologies into their business practices and answer questions such as which functions to automate, how much to invest in AI, and which platforms provide the most benefit. Computer systems design and related services is also expected to experience faster than average growth (10% statewide or +1,700 jobs), in part due to strong demand for AI-based systems. 

Workers in architecture, engineering, and related industries, are likely to become more productive, as GenAI can support many tasks involved in architecture and engineering occupations. However, the BLS assesses that “the unique technical expertise of [these workers] and existing regulatory requirements create uncertainty about the extent and employment impact of AI adoption.” For this reason, demand for workers in this industry is expected to remain strong in Oregon from 2024 to 2034 at 22% growth (+4,400 jobs). 

Finance and Insurance

In recent years, the insurance industry has deployed drones to take photos of sites, limiting the need to send human examiners to the field. Going forward, insurers are expected to use AI technologies alongside drone technologies to further boost productivity. These productivity gains are expected to limit employment demand in the insurance carriers and related activities industry, which is projected to decline by 200 jobs or 1% from 2024 to 2034 in Oregon. This industry accounted for nearly half (47%) of employment in the finance and insurance sector in 2024, contributing to projected employment declines in the broad sector over the decade (-1,500 jobs or -3%).

AI technologies, specifically robo-advisors, are expected to have a small impact on the employment of personal financial advisors, the largest occupation within the securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments industry. While robo-advisors provide an alternative to human advisors, the BLS finds that “older clients with sophisticated financial planning needs are unlikely to trust automated recommendations.” Statewide growth in this occupation is expected to be about as fast as for all occupations over the decade at 7%. 

Information Technology and Computer and Mathematical Occupations

While Oregon’s information sector is expected to grow at roughly the all industry average rate (7% vs 6%) over the next decade, software publishers and data processing, web hosting and related services industries are expected to see more rapid growth from 2024 to 2034. These two industries are projected to experience employment growth due to the strong and growing demand for IT products and services, such as custom software, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and AI-based systems. Software publishers are expected to grow by 12% over the decade, adding 1,600 jobs statewide. Increased use of AI tools, which often run on cloud-based infrastructure, increase the demand for data centers that offer data storage, management, and computing power. As such, employment in the data processing, web hosting, and related services industry is projected to increase by 16% and add nearly 1,300 jobs statewide by 2034. Additionally, employment in Oregon’s utilities sector is projected to increase by 12% (+600 jobs), in part to accommodate the increasing energy demands associated with data centers.

The information sector has a high concentration of computer and mathematical occupations, many of which are expected to be impacted by AI tools. Developing, implementing, and leveraging these technologies will require expertise from workers in occupations such as data scientists (+33% growth or +900 jobs from 2024 to 2034), computer and information research analysts (+17% or 100 jobs), and software developers (+14% or 3,000 jobs). 

AI tools are expected to increase the volume of data that is generated and can be processed. This is expected to increase demand for workers in occupations that can analyze data to inform decision making such as data scientists (+33%), actuaries (+16%), and operations research analysts (+22%). 

Other Industries and Occupations

Workers in arts, design, media, and communication occupations perform tasks that have a high potential to be automated or streamlined by AI and are expected to see employment demand limited by these productivity increases from 2024 to 2034. These occupations include graphic designers (+5% growth statewide), interpreters and translators (+3%), and technical writers (+1%).

Several health care occupations (+13%) are also expected to be affected by AI, although strong underlying demand for health care services, driven primarily by the aging of Oregon’s population, will offset some of these effects. Medical coding and billings processes are expected to be streamlined using AI tools, somewhat limiting demand for medical secretaries and administrative assistants (+10% growth) and medical records specialists (+11%). Radiologists are incorporating AI into diagnostic systems, increasing productivity; however, strong underlying demand is expected to increase employment in the occupation by 10% over the decade. Medical transcriptionists (+3%) are expected to grow slower than average in Oregon due to technologies that can recognize speech and transcribe audio. 

A number of sales occupations (+1%) are expected to see their employment demand limited due to AI technologies, as these systems can quickly summarize and analyze sales calls, generate leads, draft emails and proposals among other tasks. Sales engineers (+8%), insurance sales agents (-1%), and other types of sales representatives (+5%) are expected to see reduced employment demands due to productivity increases from AI. 

Automation technologies, such as automated phone systems and virtual assistants, have been impacting the job outlook for administrative support occupations (-1%) prior to emerging AI technologies. Efficiency gains from integrating AI technologies are expected to further reduce employment demand for occupations such as procurement clerks (-6%); credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks (-11%); customer service representatives (-6%); and nonmedical secretaries and administrative assistants (-1%). 

Within the legal services industry, paralegals and legal assistants’ (-3%) work may be streamlined by custom-made AI tools to assist with reviewing contracts, the discovery process, and conducting research.  
Digital tutors within the education services industry can use AI and LLM technology to teach and answer student questions, putting downward pressure on demand for tutors (+10%) over the decade. However, relatively fast projected growth in Oregon’s private education industry (+9%) is expected to increase demand for this occupation statewide.

Conclusion

Productivity gains from new technologies are associated with job creation and job destruction. The continued development of AI technologies is expected to increase efficiency in many occupations, reducing demand for employment. At the same time, some of these impacts will be offset by increased demand for workers in industries and occupations that develop, utilize, and help implement these tools and their underlying infrastructure or have other underlying drivers of demand. Entirely new occupations may be created as a result of technological advancements. Research on the impacts of these emerging technologies is ongoing and will be incorporated into future 10-year employment projections for Oregon. 

For more information on how AI impacts have been incorporated into national employment projections, read the following articles from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Incorporating AI impacts in BLS employment projections: occupational case studies and Industry and occupational employment projections overview and highlights, 2024–34.