Administrative assistants and secretaries

ISCO-08 4120, 3343, 4110

Executive assistant, Administrative assistant, Team assistant, Office manager, Secretary, Administrative officer

AI exposure57%

Headcount need, in FTE

Exposure range

Your current headcount

FTE

Need in 203080 FTE-20 FTE (-20%)

Need in 203561 FTE-39 FTE (-39%)

How AI is used on these tasks today

Automation 64%Augmentation 36%

In AI conversations about this job's tasks: the AI does the task itself (automation) or helps the person do it (augmentation).Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. Occupations: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive, Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants. AEI

1. Exposure 57%Average automation potential of the job's tasks. Range for this family: 40 to 70%.ILO occupations used: Secretaries (general) (58%), Administrative and Executive Secretaries (54%), General Office Clerks (60%). ILO data

2. Strategic ceiling 100%Your call: how much of this potential do you want to capture? Nobody can set it for you.

3. Adoption speed midpoint 2030

Inherits your company stance, adjustable for this family.

4. Conversion to headcount sensitive 70%Default 70%: Administrative volume follows the size of the organisation; once scheduling, minutes and filing are automated, little new demand absorbs the time saved.

Target AI skills

level 1 to 4

Foundation

Use AI assistants every day

Frame and phrase a request

Check and challenge AI outputs

Protect data and respect the rules

Applied

Rethink one's process with AI

Analyse data with AI

Produce content with AI

Delegate to and supervise AI agents

Job skills

Growing in value

Coordinating complex projects and events
Configuring and supervising administrative agents
Handling confidential executive information
Organising team workflows and routines

Losing value

Calendar management and meeting scheduling
Taking and formatting meeting minutes
Drafting standard letters and emails
Filing, data entry and expense claims
Travel booking

How the job will change

Many core tasks of the job are now done by AI: scheduling meetings across calendars, taking and circulating minutes, drafting standard emails and letters, filling in expense claims, booking travel, extracting data from forms and invoices. Meeting transcription and email assistants are already built into office tools. Team assistants supporting several managers on routine tasks are the most exposed, and general office clerks even more so.

The remaining roles move towards coordination and trust. Executive assistants handle complex agendas, sensitive information, events and relations with board members, and they configure and supervise the agents that do the routine work. Some assistants evolve towards project coordination or office management. A good assistant tomorrow anticipates, organises and filters for the executive, and spots the errors an agent will inevitably make.

2026-2027: Transcription, email and scheduling assistants built into office tools.
2028-2030: Agents handle travel, expenses and scheduling; team assistant roles decline sharply.
2031+: Fewer assistants, focused on executives, coordination and confidential matters.

Watch out

Assistants know the organisation well but have few natural mobility paths. Moves towards project coordination, HR, purchasing or customer service need to start before the roles disappear. See the seniority outlook below.

What if you hired fewer juniors?

Your 2036 seniors are the juniors you hire today.

Seniors available in 2036-10%2 FTE short

Gap above 5% from2031

Your seniority mix today

Juniors (0 to 2 yrs in the profession)35%Seniors (6+ yrs)20%

Mid-level (2 to 6 yrs in the profession, the remainder)45%

Cut in junior hiring -40%

For

Advanced settings

Juniors promoted each year33%Juniors leaving each year15%Senior gap filled by external hiring0%If every company makes the same bet, senior profiles will be scarce and expensive.

Seniority mix, % of today's headcount

Juniors35%Mid-level42%Seniors18%

2026 2036

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How the numbers are built

Every headcount figure combines four assumptions. Three come pre-filled from public research and job family defaults. The strategic ceiling is yours to set.

Public researchExposureAverage automation potential of the job's tasks, from the ILO's 2025 task-level scores.

Your decisionStrategic ceilingHow much of that potential you choose to capture. Your decision, not ours.

Your companyAdoption speedHow fast your company moves, set once for the whole company.

Job family defaultConversion to headcountHow much of the productivity gain becomes fewer people rather than more output.

Headcount effect

Seniority outlook

A flow model with three levels of experience in the profession. Promotion and exit rates are set so that today's mix stays stable when hiring does not change: any gap you see comes from the junior hiring cut alone.