Will AI replace business jobs?
Updated
Business continuity planners score 58 of 100 for AI exposure. The largest share of their task time, 81%, is work AI speeds up while they stay in charge. AI can take over 15% outright, and 4% stays with people.
- 15% AI can do it
- 81% AI helps
- 4% Needs a person
High exposure
Higher than 88% of the 923 occupations we scored.
Task by task
We graded 21 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 3 of them today, speeds up 17 and leaves 1 to people.
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Write reports to summarize testing activities, including descriptions of goals, planning, scheduling, execution, results, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Reports from test notes are highly suited to AI drafting. | 78% AI can do it |
| Prepare reports summarizing operational results, financial performance, or accomplishments of specified objectives, goals, or plans. Summarizing metrics into reports is well suited to AI. | 72% AI can do it |
| Create or administer training and awareness presentations or materials. AI drafts slides, quizzes, and materials; delivery stays human. | 70% AI can do it |
| Review existing disaster recovery, crisis management, or business continuity plans. AI reviews plan gaps against standards; adequacy calls stay human. | 59% AI helps |
| Create scenarios to reestablish operations from various types of business disruptions. AI can generate varied disruption scenarios; domain input shapes realism. | 57% AI helps |
| Maintain and update organization information technology applications and network systems blueprints. Discovery tools update diagrams; engineers validate accuracy. | 55% AI helps |
| Analyze corporate intelligence data to identify trends, patterns, or warnings indicating threats to security of people, assets, information, or infrastructure. AI spots trends in intel data; threat calls need analysts. | 54% AI helps |
| Analyze impact on, and risk to, essential business functions or information systems to identify acceptable recovery time periods and resource requirements. AI structures impact data; interviews with business owners needed. | 53% AI helps |
| Interpret government regulations and applicable codes to ensure compliance. AI summarizes regulations well; legal accountability stays with experts. | 51% AI helps |
| Develop emergency management plans for recovery decision making and communications, continuity of critical departmental processes, or temporary shut-down of non-critical departments to ensure continuity of operation and governance. Drafts plan content well; leadership decisions and approvals stay human. | 50% AI helps |
Show the other 11 tasks
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Identify individual or transaction targets to direct intelligence collection. AI ranks candidate targets from data; selection needs human judgement. | 49% AI helps |
| Conduct or oversee collection of corporate intelligence to avoid fraud, financial crime, cyber attack, terrorism, and infrastructure failure. Automated monitoring tools gather intel; oversight and escalation stay human. | 47% AI helps |
| Identify opportunities for strategic improvement or mitigation of business interruption and other risks caused by business, regulatory, or industry-specific change initiatives. AI flags risks from change plans; strategy choices stay human. | 46% AI helps |
| Recommend or implement methods to monitor, evaluate, or enable resolution of safety, operations, or compliance interruptions. Monitoring tools automate detection; resolving interruptions needs people. | 44% AI helps |
| Establish, maintain, or test call trees to ensure appropriate communication during disaster. Alert tools automate call trees; live drills need people. | 42% AI helps |
| Create business continuity and disaster recovery budgets. Budget models are spreadsheet work; stakeholder justification stays human. | 41% AI helps |
| Develop disaster recovery plans for physical locations with critical assets, such as data centers. Needs site inspection; AI drafts most of plan text. | 40% AI helps |
| Design or implement products and services to mitigate risk or facilitate use of technology-based tools and methods. Engineering design and tool rollout need technical expertise and oversight. | 36% AI helps |
| Test documented disaster recovery strategies and plans. Live tests need real systems and staff; AI aids prep. | 30% AI helps |
| Conduct or oversee contingency plan integration and operation. Coordinating live contingency operations depends on people and urgent judgement. | 27% AI helps |
| Attend professional meetings, read literature, and participate in training or other educational offerings to keep abreast of new developments and technologies related to disaster recovery and business continuity. Attending events and networking is largely personal and human. | 15% Needs a person |
How business continuity planners compare
All occupations (923)
Business and financial operations (48)
Pay and outlook in the US
- Median pay
- $83,050 a year, May 2025
- People employed
- 271,772 in the US, May 2025
- Projected change in jobs
- +3.9% from 2024 to 2034
Skills to build
- Build business impact analyses and risk assessments in Microsoft Excel
- Run live disaster recovery tests with IT systems and staff
- Coordinate live recovery operations after a disruption event
- Track remediation tasks and owners in ServiceNow or JIRA
- Hold the Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) credential
Safer roles nearby
5 related occupations with lower scores.
Questions about business continuity planners and AI
Will business jobs be replaced by AI?
Partly. About 5 in 10 working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly drafting test summary reports and operational results reports. What stays with people is running live tests, judging whether plans are adequate, and coordinating recovery when a disruption hits.
Will AI take over business jobs?
AI can already do 15% of the task time in business and speeds up another 81%. People still do 4% of it. The US has 271,772 business continuity planner jobs, with a projected change of +3.9% from 2024 to 2034.
Which tasks is AI taking over for business continuity planners?
The writing around testing goes first. AI can draft test summary reports (exposure 78) from test notes, since goals, results, and conclusions follow a set structure. It also drafts operational results reports (exposure 72) from metrics, and training slides and quizzes (exposure 70).
Which tasks stay with business continuity planners?
Live coordination and live testing stay with people. Overseeing contingency plan integration and operation (exposure 27) depends on people making urgent calls during a disruption. Testing documented disaster recovery plans (exposure 30) needs real systems and staff, so AI only helps with preparation.
How can business continuity planners stay valuable?
Take responsibility for the live tests and the recovery coordination, where AI adds the least. Use AI to draft test reports in Word and training decks in PowerPoint, then spend the saved time on plan adequacy calls and recommendations. Build continuity budgets in Excel and defend them with stakeholders yourself.
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