UK AI Exposure · Professional occupations
Other psychologists
Psychologists research, study and assess emotional, cognitive and behavioural processes and abnormalities in human beings and animals and how these are affected by genetic, physical and social factors.
- Employees (UK)
- 17k
- Median annual pay
- £34,250
- Exposure score ?
- 0.7/10 Minimal 8.7/10 Very high strict reading · with tools is 8.7/10 with-tools reading · strict is 0.7/10
- Wage exposure
- £41m £507m
Higher exposure than 38% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's language models. Roles at this level are getting rebuilt - often not by disappearing, but by one person using AI to do three or five people's output.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You don't need to be afraid. You need to be the person doing the rebuilding. The operators who learn to direct AI at scale in this kind of work become hugely valuable. The ones who wait to be told what to do get told what to do - and that thing is often 'we don't need as many of you anymore.'
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where we start — flip the toggle to 'With tools' to see what AI plus the right context can compress.
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Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection.
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Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.
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Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection.
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Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.
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Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Industrial-Organizational Psychologists" (19-3032.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 25 tasks · unaided
Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge or to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning.
Write articles, white papers, or reports to share research findings and educate others.
Where humans still hold the line
23 of 25 tasks
Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection.
Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.
Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.
Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, or promotion.
Observe and interview workers to obtain information about the physical, mental, and educational requirements of jobs, as well as information about aspects such as job satisfaction.
Facilitate organizational development and change.
Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions.
Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
Conduct presentations on research findings for clients or at research meetings.
Coach senior executives and managers on leadership and performance.
Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion.
Train clients to administer human resources functions, including testing, selection, and performance management.
Assess employee performance.
Identify training and development needs.
Formulate and implement training programs, applying principles of learning and individual differences.
Study organizational effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency, including the nature of workplace supervision and leadership.
Provide expert testimony in employment lawsuits.
Conduct research studies of physical work environments, organizational structures, communication systems, group interactions, morale, or motivation to assess organizational functioning.
Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals.
Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues.
Counsel workers about job and career-related issues.
Participate in mediation and dispute resolution.
Study consumers' reactions to new products and package designs, and to advertising efforts, using surveys and tests.
Tasks via O*NET "Industrial-Organizational Psychologists" (19-3032.00).
What AI can already do
22 of 25 tasks · with tools
Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection.
Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.
Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.
Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, or promotion.
Facilitate organizational development and change.
Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions.
Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
Conduct presentations on research findings for clients or at research meetings.
Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion.
Train clients to administer human resources functions, including testing, selection, and performance management.
Assess employee performance.
Identify training and development needs.
Formulate and implement training programs, applying principles of learning and individual differences.
Study organizational effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency, including the nature of workplace supervision and leadership.
Provide expert testimony in employment lawsuits.
Conduct research studies of physical work environments, organizational structures, communication systems, group interactions, morale, or motivation to assess organizational functioning.
Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge or to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning.
Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals.
Write articles, white papers, or reports to share research findings and educate others.
Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues.
Participate in mediation and dispute resolution.
Study consumers' reactions to new products and package designs, and to advertising efforts, using surveys and tests.
Where humans still hold the line
3 of 25 tasks
Observe and interview workers to obtain information about the physical, mental, and educational requirements of jobs, as well as information about aspects such as job satisfaction.
Coach senior executives and managers on leadership and performance.
Counsel workers about job and career-related issues.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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