<figure><img src="https://i.insider.com/6aab22f416256d3825fdec9e?format=jpeg" height="3335" width="5000" alt="SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER – 15: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sits for a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference at the Moscone Center on September 15, 2026 in San Francisco, California. Dreamforce is an annual event that highlights the company's technologies and encourages professional networking. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)"><figcaption><p class="copyright">Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images</p></figcaption></figure><ul class="summary-list"><li>A version of this story originally appeared in the AI Insider newsletter.</li><li>Sign up for Business Insider's weekly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/tech-memo" data-autoaffiliated="false">AI Insider newsletter here</a>.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-muse-rise-ai-poses-threat-to-chatgpt-dominance-2026-9">OpenAI</a> recently published one of the clearest signals yet about which workplace skills may become most valuable in the AI era.</p><p>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/index/research-acceleration-view-inside-openai/">report</a> on how its researchers use AI, the company shared data showing which tasks are being absorbed by AI and which still rely on people.</p><p>The biggest automation gains this year came in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-coding-reset">coding</a>, technical support, monitoring computer runs, and analyzing results. By contrast, AI is still doing relatively little work deciding what projects to pursue, where to invest resources, or how to set priorities.</p><div id="1790361072636" data-styles="default-width" data-embed-type="custom" data-script="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WG4ae/embed.js" class="insider-raw-embed" data-type="embed"><div style="min-height:848px" id="datawrapper-vis-WG4ae"><script type="text/javascript" defer="" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WG4ae/embed.js" charset="utf-8" data-target="#datawrapper-vis-WG4ae"></script><noscript><img src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WG4ae/full.png" alt="Execution vs. decisions (Bar Chart)" /></noscript></div></div><p>This offers a glimpse of where the value of work may shift.</p><p>Companies can measure whether code was written, products shipped, or bugs fixed, making those tasks easier to automate. Deciding what should be built in the first place is harder. It requires judgment, context, tradeoffs, and a willingness to take risks.</p><p>As OpenAI put it: "People still set our research priorities, judge which ideas and results to pursue, and decide whether to scale, pause, or deploy systems."</p><p>In other words, the future of human work may shift away from execution and toward making the right decisions.</p><p><strong><em>Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter </em></strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/tech-memo">here</a><strong><em>. Reach out to me via email at </em></strong><a target="_blank" href="mailto:abarr@businessinsider.com">abarr@businessinsider.com</a></p><div class="read-original">Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-reveals-workplace-skills-ai-cant-automate-easily-2026-9">Business Insider</a></div>