How Generative AI Adoption Alters the Demand for Cognitive and Social Skills Within Roles: A Skill-Centric Analysis
A common view holds that generative AI (GenAI) automates cognitive tasks, reshaping roles to emphasize social skills over cognitive ones. Drawing on the framework we develop in this paper, we argue that other outcomes are theoretically possible. We analyze seven million job postings from 595 U.S. public firms that adopted GenAI in 2022-2024, estimating difference-in-differences models comparing GenAI-adopting and non-adopting roles around ChatGPT's launch. We find no evidence of greater emphasis on social skills in GenAI-adopting roles; instead, their relative demand for social skills declined by 3.4%, while demand for cognitive skills held steady. This decline reflects the addition of functional administrative skills to roles outside those functions. Concentrated in non-managerial roles, this pattern points toward GenAI-enabled self-service rather than intensified cross-functional coordination.