OpenAI Report: AI Drives Cross-Occupation Tasks Up from 13.1% to 25.9% in Four Months

OpenAI's latest "Work at the Frontier" report, based on over 1.5 million work-related ChatGPT messages and about 6,200 employees from April to July 2026, reveals how AI is reshaping job structures.

The report found that when employees use AI for tasks outside their job scope, some of these cross-occupation activities are not one-time experiments but gradually become daily habits. The share of cross-occupation tasks in occupation-specific AI activity rose from 13.1% in April to 25.9% in July.

Data shows that 23.6% of employees repeated a cross-occupation task the following month, far higher than the 8.4% for comparable employees who had not done so. Customer communication tasks had the highest retention at 54%, ad copywriting at 44%, and marketing materials at 37%, while explaining financial information was only about 15%.

The report suggests that when companies plan their AI strategy, they should not only focus on providing tools but also rethink how work itself is divided and arranged.