America’s Chief Financial Officers Say AI Is Coming for Admin Jobs

New study finds little evidence of broad job losses from AI but a clear shift away from clerical roles and toward technical ones

America’s chief financial officers say that artificial intelligence will push some people out of their jobs: primarily workers in routine, clerical and administrative roles. Workers with highly skilled roles, such as architects and engineers, are more likely to keep their jobs, especially if they can use AI to their advantage.

A new study, based on a survey of about 750 chief financial officers, found that so far AI had essentially no employment effect in 2025 and that most expect AI will lead their companies to trim only a small number of their overall jobs this year.

It is still possible that workers with jobs that require more education and more training could eventually get hit, “but probably not in 2026,” said John Graham, an economist at Duke University and one of the paper’s authors. It was released this week as a working paper on the National Bureau of Economic Research website.

Graham has been surveying chief financial officers about their expectations for their companies and the overall economy for 30 years. CFOs are uniquely placed to understand the inner workings of their companies, Graham said, since it is their job to keep watch on how company resources are being deployed.