Artificial intelligence, tasks, skills, and wages: Worker-level evidence from Germany

Erik Engberg, Michael Koch, Magnus Lodefalk and Sarah Schroeder

Research Policy, 2025, vol. 54, issue 8

Abstract: This paper examines how new technologies are linked to changes in the content of work and individual wages. As a first step, it documents novel facts on task and skill changes within occupations over the past two decades in Germany. We furthermore reveal a distinct relationship between ex-ante occupational work content and ex-post exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation (robots). Workers in occupations with high AI exposure perform different activities and face different skill requirements compared to workers in occupations exposed to robots, suggesting that robots and AI are substitutes for different activities and skills. We also document that changes in the task and skill content of occupations is related to ex-ante exposure to technologies. Finally, the study uses individual labour market biographies to investigate the relationship between AI and wages. By exploring the dynamic influence of AI exposure on individuals over time, the study uncovers positive associations with wages, with nuanced variations across occupational groups, thereby shedding further light on the substitutability and augmentability of AI.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence technologies; Task content; Skills; Wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J44 N34 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Related works:
Working Paper: Artificial Intelligence, Tasks, Skills and Wages: Worker-Level Evidence from Germany (2023)
Working Paper: Artificial Intelligence, Tasks, Skills and Wages: Worker-Level Evidence from Germany (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:8:s0048733325001143

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105285

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