A job automation calculator is only as useful as the methodology behind it. The most widely-cited automation risk estimates, including Oxford's 47% figure and Goldman Sachs's 300 million jobs analysis, are built on occupation-level task data from the O*NET database. They produce averages for job categories. What they cannot tell you is whether your specific configuration of tasks, your industry, your employer, and your skills puts you above or below that average.
The Fossil Score calculator takes a different approach. It asks you about your actual work rather than looking up your job title. The result is a personalised score that reflects your real situation and, more importantly, one that you can actively improve by changing how you spend your working time and which skills you develop.
What the research says
92M
jobs displaced by 2030
WEF Future of Jobs 2025
170M
new roles created by 2030
WEF Future of Jobs 2025
41%
of employers plan AI-driven headcount reductions
WEF 2025
55K
job cuts explicitly attributed to AI in 2024
Challenger, Gray and Christmas
A job automation calculator estimates the proportion of your work tasks that current or near-term AI tools can perform at acceptable quality. The best calculators break this down by task type: routine cognitive tasks (highest automation rate), pattern recognition (high), judgment under uncertainty (medium), interpersonal tasks (low), and physical dexterity in variable environments (lowest).
The Fossil Score calculator uses five weighted inputs: estimated automation exposure of your daily task mix, skill portability across roles, physical and relational work content, your current AI literacy level, and adaptability indicators. Each input is scored and combined to produce your overall Fossil Score from 0 to 100.
An 80% automation risk means approximately four out of five of your regular work tasks could be performed by existing AI tools at acceptable quality. This does not mean immediate replacement. It means the economic case for automating your role is strong, and your employer's decision is more a question of when than whether.
You improve your score by changing the actual composition of your work: spending more time on tasks with lower automation potential (novel judgment, complex relationships, physical presence, creative synthesis) and less time on highly automatable tasks. This often means proactively automating your own routine tasks and redirecting that time toward higher-value work.
No. The main distinction is between job-title lookup tools and task-based calculators. Job-title tools return a pre-calculated probability for your occupation category, the same for everyone with that title. Task-based calculators ask about what you actually do and produce a more personalised result, which is more useful for career planning.
Free Assessment
Task-based, not title-based. Free Fossil Score assessment. Four minutes.
Get My Fossil Score