Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers

Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.

The occupation "Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers" has an automation risk of 47.4%, which is slightly lower than the base risk of 48.4%. This moderate risk level reflects the fact that while some components of the job—primarily those centered around generating and refining textual content—are susceptible to automation, other aspects rely heavily on uniquely human abilities. The advancement of natural language processing technologies allows AI to write basic stories, analyze texts, and perform iterative edits, which have contributed to the automation risk in this field. However, the creative and emotional nuance required for exceptional lyricism and poetry still presents challenges for current automated systems. The top three most automatable tasks for this occupation are: writing fiction or nonfiction prose (such as short stories, novels, biographies, articles, analyses, and essays), developing story elements (including themes, plots, characterization, psychological analysis, and dialogue), and revising written material to meet various standards and client needs. These tasks largely involve structured approaches to content creation, which AI can now replicate to some extent. Large language models can generate coherent narratives, adapt content for different tones or requirements, and make surface-level edits or rewrites, making these particular job functions more vulnerable to automation. In contrast, the most resistant tasks—collaborating with other writers, teaching writing classes, and creating humorous material for performances—require higher-level creative and interpersonal skills. Effective collaboration and teaching demand emotional intelligence, adaptability, and real-time social interaction, areas where AI currently falls short. Generating genuinely humorous content is especially tied to cultural context, timing, and subtlety—qualities that are difficult for algorithms to master. Bottleneck skills such as originality, which are assessed at high levels (4.1% and 4.5%), further buffer this occupation from full automation. The human capacity for creating novel ideas and expressing unique perspectives remains a key barrier, ensuring that some core elements of this work will remain resistant to automation for the foreseeable future.