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Managers · code 1120

Managing directors and chief executives

AI can write the board report. Taking responsibility for the company is still the chief executive's job.

All eleven tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, from setting strategy and watching the numbers to picking senior staff and actually leading the place.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Managing directors and chief executives formulate and review the policies, and plan, direct, coordinate and evaluate the overall activities, of enterprises or organizations (except special-interest organizations and government departments) with the support of other managers, usually within guidelines established by a board of directors or a governing body to whom they are answerable for the operations undertaken and results. Tasks include - (a) planning, directing and coordinating the general functioning of an enterprise or organization; (b) reviewing the operations and results of the enterprise or organization and reporting to boards of directors and governing bodies; (c) determining objectives, strategies, policies and programmes for the enterprise or organization; (d) providing overall leadership and management to the enterprise or organization; (e) establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources; (f) authorizing material, human and financial resources to implement organizational policies and programmes; (g) monitoring and evaluating performance of the organization or enterprise against established objectives and policies; (h) consulting with senior subordinate staff and reviewing recommendations and reports; (i) representing the organization at official occasions and board meetings, in negotiations and at conventions, seminars, public hearings and forums; (j) selecting or approving the selection of senior staff; (k) ensuring the organization complies with relevant legislation and regulations. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Chief executive - Managing director - Regional manager Note Regional managers and other senior managers who coordinate and supervise the activities of subordinate managers who have a diverse range of functional responsibilities are included in Unit Group 1120: Managing Directors and Chief Executives. Managers responsible for specialized functions within a specific geographic area are excluded from this unit group. For example, regional sales managers are classified in Unit Group 1221: Sales and Marketing Managers. Jobs whose principal responsibility is to participate as a member of the board of directors of one or more enterprises or organizations are included in Unit Group 1120: Managing Directors and Chief Executives. Chief executives of government-owned enterprises are included in Unit Group 1120: Managing Directors and Chief Executives.

  • business manager
  • chief operating officer
  • chief executive officer
  • animal facility manager

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

62 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Minimal Exposure

306 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 11 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 37.6 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 37.6 = 62.4.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

This job rates 23.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Managing directors and chief executives 62

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Board reports and analysis.
  • Monitoring performance data.
  • Budget reviews.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Setting direction and taking responsibility.
  • Leading people through change.
  • Relationships with boards and investors.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Deciding how AI is used across the business.
  • Managing workforce change.
  • AI risk and governance.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

29 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 67 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

24 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 7 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

24 How
hands-on
7 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs .

finger skill 12.1 · hand skill 3.6 · cramped spaces 5.9 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 47, against an average of 38. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 47

    Determining objectives, strategies, policies and programmes for the enterprise or organization

    Low
  2. 47

    Monitoring and evaluating performance of the organization or enterprise against established objectives and policies

    Low
  3. 42

    Reviewing the operations and results of the enterprise, or organization and reporting to boards of directors and governing bodies

    Low
  4. 41

    Establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources

    Low
  5. 37

    Authorising material, human and financial resources to implement organizational policies and programmes

    Low
  6. 36

    Planning, directing and coordinating the general functioning of an enterprise or organization

    Low
  7. 35

    Ensuring the organization complies with relevant legislation and regulations.

    Low
  8. 34

    Consulting with senior subordinate staff and reviewing recommendations and reports

    Low
  9. 34

    Representing the organization at official occasions and board meetings, in negotiations, at conventions, seminars, public hearings and forums

    Low
  10. 32

    Selecting or approving the selection of senior staff

    Low
  11. 32

    Providing overall leadership and management to the enterprise or organization

    Low

11 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
67
AI does it for you
29

Sidekick wins, by 38 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1111, 1112

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

52
48

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.37% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 3 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should chief executives be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of the job are changing. Strategy, monitoring performance, reporting, budgets, resources, compliance, consulting, representing, senior hiring and leadership all rate Low. AI will help with analysis and reporting; accountability and leadership stay human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 30 jobs in the “Managers” family, averaging 64. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →