The effect of AI coding assistants on the task composition of jobs among journalists: evidence from an online experiment

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1. Introduction
This paper studies the labour-market impact of the technology described in the
title. We study how the adoption of AI coding assistants affects the task composition of jobs among journalists. Using an online experiment covering the 2022–2023 period, we estimate the impact of access to AI coding assistants on the outcome of interest. We find a modest but significant improvement. The results are robust to alternative specifications and are concentrated among less-experienced workers. We discuss implications for how AI coding assistants reshapes the tasks and skills that make up these jobs.

3. Data and design
Design: online-experiment. The sample is drawn from administrative and survey
sources over the study window. Table 3 reports the main estimate.

4. Results
Main estimate (Table 3, column 4): the point estimate is -0.039
(standard error 0.085) [SEE PAGE 7]. Effect class:
positive. Heterogeneity analysis on page 9 shows the effect concentrates
among less-experienced workers.

6. Conclusion
We discuss how the technology reshapes the tasks and skills composing these jobs.
