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Industrial-Organizational Psychologists

Occupation · SOC 19-3032.00

Apply principles of psychology to human resources, administration, management, sales, and marketing problems. Activities may include policy planning; employee testing and selection, training, and development; and organizational development and analysis. May work with management to organize the work setting to improve worker productivity.

Also called: I-O Psychologist (Industrial-Organizational Psychologist) · Organizational Consultant · Organizational Psychologist · Research Scientist · Consulting Psychologist · I-O Practitioner (Industrial-Organizational Practitioner) · Industrial Psychologist · Management Consultant · Organizational Development Specialist (OD Specialist) · Personnel Research Psychologist · Engineering Psychologist · HR Consultant (Human Resources Consultant)

Job family: Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations

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A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch /roles/role-19-3032-00/context.md directly.

AI work map

A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.

Use as a copilot

Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.

  • Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. · 14.2%
  • Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. · 5.6%
  • Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge and to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning. · 4.2%
See collaboration patterns →

Keep a human in the loop

Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.

  • Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection. · 100.0% need a human
  • Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. · 98.0% need a human
  • Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. · 97.3% need a human
See the boundary tasks →

91st-percentile task overlap — yet about 400 openings a year (+6.3% projected, BLS), and observed AI use leans 7155% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →

AI & job outlook

What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.

Exposure to current AI

Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.

Measure Rank vs all occupations Percentile Score
Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) High 96th 1.4
LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) High 76th 0.9
AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) High 82nd 0.3

OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.1), with simple added tooling (β 0.5), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.9). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.

Most of this job's tasks can be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman), which tends to track with higher digital and AI exposure.

Historical automation estimate (2013)

A pre-LLM (2013) estimate of how automatable this job is by computerization and robotics. Shown for historical context only — it is not part of any current AI ranking.

Frey–Osborne probability 0.0 · 8th percentile among occupations · Low

How AI is actually used in this job

Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.

Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. 6.0%
Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. 2.2%
Participate in mediation and dispute resolution. 1.8%
Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection. 1.5%
Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues. 0.9%
Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals. 0.6%

Job outlook

Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.

Outlook About average · +6.3% by 2034
Projected annual openings 400
Employment 2024 → 2034 5,600 → 5,900

“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.

Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient

The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.

39% mean task exposure (2025)
76th percentile of 427 placed occupations
−2 pts shift 2023 → 2025
International occupation (ISCO-08) Task exposure (2025) Most tasks fall in
Psychologists · 2634 39% Gradient 1

Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.

Working with AI in this job

How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.

Augmentation vs. automation 71.5% working with AI · 23.8% handed to AI
Most common way people use AI here Iteration · you and AI go back and forth
Typical AI autonomy 4.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently
Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) 54.8%

What people delegate to AI

The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.

Task How Usage
Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. Learning 14.2%
Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Iteration 5.6%
Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge and to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning. Iteration 4.2%
Write articles, white papers, and reports to share research findings and educate others. Learning 3.8%
Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, and promotion. Iteration 3.2%
Coach senior executives and managers on leadership and performance. Iteration 1.4%
Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection. Learning 0.8%
Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals. Iteration 0.7%

Where a human is still needed

Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.

Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection. 100.0%
Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. 98.0%
Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. 97.3%
Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals. 95.5%
Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, and promotion. 95.2%
Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues. 93.8%

What people most often hand AI here

Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.

  • Help me counsel workers about job and career-related issues.

    From: Counsel workers about job and career-related issues. · 14.2% of measured AI use · learning

  • Help me advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

    From: Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. · 5.6% of measured AI use · task iteration

  • Help me write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge and to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning.

    From: Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge and to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning. · 4.2% of measured AI use · task iteration

  • Help me write articles, white papers, and reports to share research findings and educate others.

    From: Write articles, white papers, and reports to share research findings and educate others. · 3.8% of measured AI use · learning

Tasks

All 25 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.

Emerging tasks

Newer responsibilities O*NET has flagged as growing for this occupation.

  • Develop and administer surveys to employees of organizations.
  • Teach industrial-organizational psychology courses to undergraduate or graduate students.

Work activities

Knowledge, skills & abilities

O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).

Knowledge

Personnel and Human Resources 4.9
Psychology 4.8
Education and Training 4.5
Administration and Management 4.0
Mathematics 4.0
English Language 3.8
Customer and Personal Service 3.6

Essential skills

Reading Comprehension 4.4
Active Listening 4.4
Writing 4.3
Speaking 4.1
Critical Thinking 4.1
Active Learning 3.9
Monitoring 3.9
Science 3.8
Learning Strategies 3.6

Abilities

Written Comprehension 4.4
Oral Expression 4.4
Oral Comprehension 4.3
Written Expression 4.3
Deductive Reasoning 4.1
Inductive Reasoning 4.1
Problem Sensitivity 4.0
Information Ordering 4.0
Speech Recognition 4.0
Speech Clarity 4.0
Fluency of Ideas 3.9
Originality 3.9
Mathematical Reasoning 3.9
Category Flexibility 3.8
Near Vision 3.8

Transferable skills

Judgment and Decision Making 4.1
Complex Problem Solving 4.0
Systems Evaluation 4.0
Social Perceptiveness 3.9
Systems Analysis 3.9
Coordination 3.8
Persuasion 3.8
Instructing 3.6
Time Management 3.6

Skills in demand

Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.

Showing the top 40 of 42.

Tools & technology

Example Category
Adobe Acrobat Document management software Hot technology
Google Sheets Spreadsheet software Hot technology
Hypertext markup language HTML Web platform development software Hot technology
IBM SPSS Statistics Analytical or scientific software Hot technology
Microsoft Access Data base user interface and query software Hot technology
Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet software Hot technology
Microsoft Office software Office suite software Hot technology
Microsoft Outlook Electronic mail software Hot technology
Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation software Hot technology
Microsoft Project Project management software Hot technology
Microsoft Visio Process mapping and design software Hot technology
Microsoft Word Word processing software Hot technology
Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise resource planning ERP software Hot technology
SAS Analytical or scientific software Hot technology
Assessment Systems Corporation XCALIBRE Analytical or scientific software
Human resource information system (HRIS) Human resources software
Learning management system LMS Computer based training software
Mentimeter Presentation software
Muthen & Muthen Mplus Analytical or scientific software
Padlet Computer based training software
Psychometric testing software Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International BILOG-MG Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International HLM Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International LISREL Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International MULTILOG Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International PARSCALE Analytical or scientific software
Scientific Software International TESTFACT Analytical or scientific software
Web browser software Internet browser software
Winsteps Analytical or scientific software

Work context

How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.

E-Mail 5.0
Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams 4.8
Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals 4.6
Telephone Conversations 4.6
Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team 4.5
Spend Time Sitting 4.4
Freedom to Make Decisions 4.4
Indoors, Environmentally Controlled 4.4
Contact With Others 4.2
Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results 4.2
Importance of Being Exact or Accurate 4.2
Coordinate or Lead Others in Accomplishing Work Activities 4.1
Time Pressure 3.7
Frequency of Decision Making 3.6
Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers 3.6
Level of Competition 3.3
Deal With External Customers or the Public in General 3.2
Public Speaking 3.1
Written Letters and Memos 3.1
Consequence of Error 2.9
Physical Proximity 2.8
Conflict Situations 2.7
Importance of Repeating Same Tasks 2.5
Health and Safety of Other Workers 2.4
Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People 2.4
Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions 2.3
Spend Time Standing 2.0
Degree of Automation 1.8
Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls 1.6
Exposed to Sounds, Noise Levels that are Distracting or Uncomfortable 1.6
In an Enclosed Vehicle or Operate Enclosed Equipment 1.5
Indoors, Not Environmentally Controlled 1.5
Spend Time Walking or Running 1.4
Outdoors, Under Cover 1.3
Exposed to Extremely Bright or Inadequate Lighting Conditions 1.2
Outdoors, Exposed to All Weather Conditions 1.2
Exposed to Very Hot or Cold Temperatures 1.2
Exposed to Hazardous Equipment 1.2
Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets 1.2
Exposed to Contaminants 1.2

How to get in

Job zone
Zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Typical entry-level education
Master's degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
Related experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Preparation level
SVP (8.0 and above) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.

What to study: Psychology . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.

Education of current workers

Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.

Master's Degree 57.7%
Doctoral Degree 30.8%
Some College Courses 3.9%
Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) 3.9%
Bachelor's Degree 3.9%

Interests & work styles

The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.

Work styles

Dependability 10.0
Attention to Detail 9.0
Integrity 8.0
Intellectual Curiosity 7.0
Cooperation 6.0
Achievement Orientation 5.0
Adaptability 4.0

Interest areas

Mathematics/Statistics 6.0
Social Science 6.0
Human Resources 5.5
Professional Advising 5.4
Public Speaking 5.0
Management/Administration 4.6

Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)

Investigative 5.3
Enterprising 4.7
Conventional 4.3

Wages & employment

U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)

$52k10th$81k25th$110kMedian$198k75th$225k90th
Annual wages by percentile — U.S. (BLS OEWS). The light band spans the 10th–90th percentile; the darker band is the middle half (25th–75th); the line is the median.
6k20246k2034 (proj.)+6.3% · About average
Projected U.S. employment, 2024–2034 (BLS Employment Projections). A labor-market forecast for the occupation, not an AI-impact forecast.
10th percentile $51,880
25th percentile $80,790
Median (50th) $109,840
75th percentile $198,170
90th percentile $224,590
People employed 1,050

Industries that employ this occupation

Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.

Industry Workers National median pay
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector 870 $123,120
Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities · National industry 170 $130,630
Educational Services · Sector 70 $83,290
Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector 30 $143,370

Where this work is most concentrated

Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).

Industry Concentration Workers
Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities · National industry 410.65× 170
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector 11.86× 870

Part of the Management & Entrepreneurship career cluster.

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay Industrial-Organizational Psychologists sits at the 91st percentile of AI task-overlap and the 89th percentile of median pay, placed here against 12 adjacent occupations on the same two axes. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Industrial-Organizational Psychologists Clinical and Counseling Psychologists Rehabilitation Counselors Social and Community Service Managers Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors Human Resources Managers Project Management Specialists Human Resources Specialists AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
AI task-overlap percentile (horizontal) vs. median-pay percentile (vertical), across all scored occupations. This occupation is highlighted; related occupations are plotted alongside it. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation.

Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.

What you can do with this

Options the data surfaces for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.

Skills that travel

Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.

Paths in

How people typically prepare for this work.

Zoom out

On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 76th percentile of 427 international occupations.

Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation

Industrial-Organizational Psychologists show 91st-percentile AI task overlap — and about 400 annual U.S. openings

  • Industrial-Organizational Psychologists rank in the 91st percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
  • The occupation is projected to see about 400 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
  • BLS projects employment to be about average (+6.3%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
  • Median annual pay is $109,840, across about 1,050 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
  • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 72% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census.2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2
Copy the whole kit
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists show 91st-percentile AI task overlap — and about 400 annual U.S. openings

• Industrial-Organizational Psychologists rank in the 91st percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE)
• The occupation is projected to see about 400 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34)
• BLS projects employment to be about average (+6.3%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34)
• Median annual pay is $109,840, across about 1,050 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024))
• Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 72% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2)

Source: Singulariki — "Industrial-Organizational Psychologists". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-3032-00
Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.

AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom

Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Industrial-Organizational Psychologists." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-3032-00

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Industrial-Organizational Psychologists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-3032-00

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-19-3032-00,
  title  = {Industrial-Organizational Psychologists},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-3032-00}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.

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