Anthropic Report Shows Programming is the Main Area of AI Agent Activity

The company Anthropic has published data that sheds new light on the real impact of advanced artificial intelligence agents on the labor market. According to the report, about half of all tool calls via the public API of its Claude model come from the area of software engineering. The remaining activity is distributed across sectors such as customer service, sales, finance, and e-commerce, but to a much lesser extent. This indicates that the IT industry is the first and so far the most advanced field for the deployment of this technology. The debate about work automation by machines has been ongoing since the Industrial Revolution. In the last decade, with the development of machine learning, concerns about humans being replaced by algorithms have particularly intensified in the context of intellectual and creative professions. Anthropic's data also shows a change in the way of collaboration. The Claude model now works with greater autonomy than ever, performing complex tasks. Interestingly, the system more often clarifies ambiguous instructions on its own, while humans interrupt its operation less frequently compared to typical human-to-human collaboration. This interaction pattern suggests the emergence of a new work paradigm, in which AI plays the role of an active, independent executor. These findings contrast with the optimistic narratives that dominated after the rapid rise in popularity of generative AI in 2023. Back then, the prevailing thesis was that this technology would become a great leveler, bringing the greatest benefits to lower-skilled workers. It was thought that a junior equipped with tools like ChatGPT would be able to produce at a senior level. The latest analyses, including Anthropic's data, challenge this assumption. It appears that AI first and foremost enhances and transforms the work of already highly skilled specialists, including programmers, rather than mass-replacing simple positions. „Around half of all Public API tool calls come from software engineering.” — Anthropic This raises questions about the long-term impact on employment structure and income inequality. While in the short term programmers may become more productive, in the longer term the demand for their work may change. Distribution of Anthropic AI Agent Activity by Sector: Software Engineering: 50, Customer Service: 15, Sales: 10, Finance: 10, E-commerce: 15 Experts point out that the current dominance of the IT sector may stem from several factors: the digital nature of programmers' work, which is easily automated; high labor costs in this industry; and the maturity of AI-supported developer tools. Other sectors will likely follow the same path, but with a delay.