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Professionals · code 2641

Authors and related writers

Authors and related writers plan, research and write books, scripts, storyboards, plays, essays, speeches, manuals, specifications and other non-journalistic articles (excluding material for newspapers, magazines and other periodicals) for publication or presentation. Tasks include - (a) conceiving, writing and editing novels, plays, scripts, poetry and other material for publication or presentation; (b) conducting research to establish factual content and to obtain other necessary information; (c) writing scripts and continuities and preparing programmes for stage, film, radio and television productions; (d) analysing material, such as specifications, notes and drawings, and creating manuals, instructions for use, user guides and other documents to explain clearly and concisely the installation, operation and maintenance of software, electronic, mechanical and other equipment; (e) writing brochures, handbooks and similar technical publications; (f) selecting material for publication, checking style, grammar and accuracy of content, arranging for any necessary revisions and checking proof copies before printing. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Author - Book editor - Essayist - Indexer - Interactive media writer - Novelist - Playwright - Poet - Script writer - Speech writer - Technical communicator - Technical writer - Writer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Advertising copy writer - 2431 - Public relations copy writer - 2432 - Journalist - 2642 - Newspaper editor - 2642

Most of the tasks are affected. It ranks 393 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • literary scholar
  • book editor
  • dramaturge
  • writer

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

45.5
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 3

AI could take on 54.5 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 54.5 = 45.5

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

16.4
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 4 US jobs

14.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 25.6 · hand skill 15.1 · cramped spaces 2.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

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.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 16.4 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.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 66.3, while the average is 54.5. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 66.3

    Selecting material for publication, checking style, grammar and accuracy of content, arranging for any necessary revisions and checks proof copies before printing.

    Medium
  2. 62.5

    Analysing material, such as specifications, notes and drawings, and creating manuals, instructions for use, user guides and other documents to explain clearly and concisely the installation, operation and maintenance of software, electronic, mechanical and other equipment

    Medium
  3. 56

    Writing brochures, handbooks and similar technical publications

    Medium
  4. 55

    Conducting research to establish factual content and to obtain other necessary information

    Medium
  5. 44.5

    Conceiving, writing and editing novels, plays, scripts, poetry and other material for publication or presentation

    Low
  6. 43

    Writing scripts and continuities and preparing programmes for stage, film, radio and television productions

    Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

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

AI helps you
69.5
AI does it for you
57.5

Helping wins by 12 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2122, 2124

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.5. This one is below that.