AI Job Disruption: Why Women and Men Both Face the Heat in the Workforce

Artificial intelligence poses a significant threat to millions of jobs traditionally held by women, as companies begin to cut positions in back-office roles that were once considered stable and secure.

According to a report from the Brookings Institution, clerical and administrative positions—such as executive assistants, receptionists, and medical transcriptionists—comprise the majority of approximately six million U.S. jobs most susceptible to AI-related job displacement.

The research highlights that over 85 percent of these at-risk jobs are occupied by women, drawing attention to a significant gender disparity in the potential impact of AI.

This warning emerges amidst an already divided U.S. labor market along gender lines.

While men are experiencing job losses in sectors like manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing, nearly all job growth in the past year has been concentrated in healthcare and social assistance—a field where women hold a three-to-one advantage over men.

Consequently, the rise of AI could introduce a challenging new divide: while men grapple with the decline of traditional industries, women could face an imminent threat from the very technology touted for enhancing office efficiency.

Recruiter Jennifer Maffei, who specializes in placing administrative staff, told the Financial Times she has been flooded with messages from workers who have been ‘downsized, right sized, restructured’ as big companies bet on AI to do more office work.

‘It’s a mess,’ she said.

Maffei said many of the workers contacting her have spent years in steady corporate support jobs, only to find that companies now believe AI can do at least part of what they do.

The concern is not that every assistant, receptionist or clerical worker will disappear overnight.

It is that many of the tasks at the heart of these jobs – scheduling meetings, preparing documents, taking notes, processing forms and handling routine requests – are exactly the kind of work AI tools are being built to do.

Back-office jobs have already been hit as companies pour money into AI.

Shipping giant Maersk has announced it will cut 1,000 administrative roles globally, while broader layoffs at companies including Procter & Gamble and Amazon have also hit corporate support staff, the FT reported.

Kelly Norton, a former executive assistant in Las Vegas, told the FT she once earned a six-figure salary.

After months of applying for 10 jobs a day, she said many of the roles now available offer roughly half what she used to make.

She has tried to stay ahead of the change, starting an online community with around 500 members to help executive assistants learn AI skills.

She has even built tools for bosses, including a bot that can pull out approvals, requests and urgent replies from messages.

‘It’s crazy what it can do,’ she said. But that is also the problem.

The same tools that help workers move faster can also make bosses ask whether they need as many workers at all.

Indeed data cited by the FT shows job postings for administrative assistance roles have fallen 5.4 percent below pre-Covid levels.

An International Labour Organization study found roles at highest risk of ‘AI-driven task automation’ accounted for 9.6 percent of female employment in higher-income countries – nearly triple the share for men.

The threat to women’s office jobs comes as men are facing a very different jobs squeeze.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the American labor market is tilting away from men, with heavily male industries losing jobs while the strongest growth is concentrated in healthcare and social assistance.

That sector added 656,500 jobs over the year to April, according to Labor Department figures cited by the Journal.

Male-heavy sectors like manufacturing and transport are being affected by tariffs and ‘poor performance’ 

Without that gain, the private sector would have lost 145,500 jobs.

Manufacturing, where men outnumber women by more than two to one, has resumed its long decline after a brief post-pandemic rebound.

Transportation and warehousing, where men outnumber women by around three to one, has also been hit.

‘Men are clearly being affected by the tariffs and poor performance of manufacturing,’ Harvard economist Lawrence Katz told the Journal.

Since the end of 2024, the number of payroll jobs held by women has increased by 421,000, while the number held by men has slipped by 1,000, according to Labor Department figures cited by the Journal.

The divide is especially clear among prime-age workers.

For women aged 25 to 54, the employment-to-population ratio was 75 percent in April, above the 2019 average of 73.7 percent. For men of the same age, it was 86.5 percent, roughly where it was before the pandemic.

For now, the jobs market is sending two warnings at once: that male-heavy sectors such as manufacturing and transport are already losing steam, as well as female-heavy office roles may be next in line as AI creeps deeper into the workplace.