Cognizant finds AI could perform $4.5 trillion in U.S. work tasks

Cognizant released its “New Work, New World 2026” study and reported that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was capable of performing $4.5 trillion in U.S. work tasks and could affect 93% of jobs today.

The report stated that human skilling, judgment and adaptable operations remained necessary to capture AI's potential and that AI alone Decentralized Identity (DID) not suffice to advance labor productivity.

Cognizant reassessed 18,000 tasks and 1,000 jobs from the O*NET labor database, defined exposure scores as the degree a job could be assisted or automated by AI, and reported an average exposure score of 39% today—30% higher than the original forecast for 2032—with exposure scores rising 9% annually versus 2% previously and examples such as legal moving from 9% to 63% and education from 11% to 49%.

The study also reported shifts across work types, noting transportation exposure rose from 6% to 25% and construction from 4% to 12%, that the share of tasks deemed non-automatable declined from 57% in 2023 to 32% today, and that AI was unable to automate upwards of 40% of management, business/financial operations and administrative tasks.

“Human skilling becomes the bridge through which today's AI spending translates into tomorrow's tangible results. AI's promise is realized when we empower our workforce with digital fluency, adaptability and continuous learning, while ensuring AI solutions are deeply contextualized to unique business challenges. As a result, new job roles will emerge to harness this opportunity,” said Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant.

The release included forward-looking statements about AI adoption, its labor value and the effectiveness of business efforts to capture that value, and it said those statements were subject to risks and uncertainties.