NeedsAHuman answers one question for about 1,000 jobs: will AI replace this job? We answer it with three plain questions instead of one scary number.
- Can AI do it? How much of the job’s work AI can already handle.
- Is it better than a person? Whether AI does that work as well as a qualified professional, with a grade for how strong the evidence is.
- When could it be replaced? A dated range, never a single year.
Those three roll up into one headline score, Still needs a human, from 0 to 100. Higher is safer. Each score band gets a one-word answer to “Will AI replace this job?”: Largely, Mostly, Partly, A little or Nah.
Why we built it
Most “will a robot take my job” sites still run on a forecast from 2013. Most “AI-proof jobs” lists are an opinion with a stock photo. Neither tells you what AI can actually do today, how good it is, or how sure anyone can be.
We wanted a site that shows its working. Every score comes from open data. Every estimate shows its range. Every quality score shows how strong its evidence is. When the evidence is thin, the page says so.
We also wanted to be calm about it. The honest story right now is that AI changes tasks inside jobs much faster than it removes whole jobs. Some jobs will shrink. Many will change. We would rather help you see which parts of your work are moving than tell you to panic.
Who built it
NeedsAHuman is built and run by First Ideas, a small web design and development business in Wiltshire, England. First Ideas builds websites for small businesses, specialist projects and organizations.
We are not economists, and we do not pretend to be. We are builders who read the research, wired the open data together, and wrote down every assumption so people who know more can check it. Where our method depends on a judgment call, the methodology says so.
Our own job is on the site too. The footer shows the live score for web developers, because we think we should be scored by the same rules as everyone else.
How it is paid for
The job pages are free and always will be. The site is paid for in three ways:
- AI tool recommendations. Some links to AI tools are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission. These links are labeled on the page where they appear.
- Course and training links. In the “How to stay needed” section, a clearly labeled block may link to courses. Some of those are affiliate links too.
- Data services, later. The open dataset stays free under CC BY 4.0. We may later charge for an API, extra history or custom cuts of the data.
We do not run sponsored content inside the scores, the evidence or the method. On a job page, nothing commercial appears above the evidence sections.
Our independence rule
No commercial relationship ever changes a score. Not an affiliate deal, not a sponsored listing, not a data customer, not an advertiser.
In practice that means:
- Scores are computed by a public pipeline from public data. The method is published, and every change to it is logged with a version number.
- The people who choose tool listings cannot edit scores, evidence grades or verdicts. Scores come from the pipeline, not from the WordPress editor.
- An AI company that is a source of data (for example, the Anthropic Economic Index or Microsoft’s Working with AI research) gets no say in how we use that data, and an AI company whose product we list gets no say in any score.
- If we ever accept a sponsored tool listing, it is labeled “Sponsored” and sits only on tools pages, never on the scores.
If you think a score looks wrong, tell us. If we were wrong, we fix it and log the fix on our corrections page.
How we use AI
We use AI, and we say where.
- The numbers come from the data pipeline, not from a chatbot.
- Part of the “Can AI do it?” score uses a language model to rate each task against a published rubric, the same way published research has done. That step is described on the coverage method page.
- The short written summaries on job pages are drafted by software from that job’s own data and checked by automated rules. A person spot-checks a sample every release. The rules reject any page that states a number not in the data, gives a single date without a range, or says a job “will be eliminated”.
Our full rules are in the editorial policy.
Get in touch
- Something wrong on a page, or anything else: email support@firstideas.co.uk, or see the contact page.
- Journalists: see the press page.
- Researchers: the open data page has downloads and citation details.