OpenAI's latest economic research indicates that workers are increasingly incorporating AI-assisted tasks from other occupations into their regular workflows. By analyzing more than 1.5 million work-related ChatGPT messages from April through July 2026, the study found that "task crossover"—using AI for activities traditionally associated with different roles—is becoming a recurring practice rather than a one-time experiment.
OpenAI Research: Workers Increasingly Incorporate Cross-Occupation AI Tasks into Regular Workflows
The research observed approximately 6,200 workers and found that the proportion of cross-occupation tasks within their AI activity rose from 13.1% in April to 25.9% in July. Workers demonstrated a higher tendency to return to these tasks in subsequent months compared to those who did not use them previously. For instance, the return rate for discussing goods or services with customers was 54%, while advertising or promotional writing saw a 44% return rate.
The findings suggest that AI may reshape the actual nature of jobs well before official job titles change. As workers find AI useful for activities outside their traditional roles, these tasks can become regular responsibilities, broadening the scope of their work. OpenAI noted that when prompting for these outside tasks, workers tend to provide more background or examples to leverage AI as a way to "borrow expertise" from other fields.
Sources
- How workers are unlocking new ways of working （OpenAI News, 2026-09-16）
- Read the report