Colorado AI Exposure Atlas

The 2026 Edition · Employment data 2025 · Compiled by Christopher Martin

About one in four jobs.

An estimated 27.4% of Colorado's covered jobs are in occupations rated as having high or substantial overlap with AI capabilities in 2023. This applies those ratings to 2025 employment. It is not a forecast of job losses.

Is my job on the list? → What about my county? →
34.8% Payroll in the top two tiers
25.9% U.S. jobs in the top two tiers
64 Counties
830 Occupations

Picture 100 Colorado jobs.

About 27 are in occupations in the high or substantial overlap tiers. Each square represents one job; the picture rounds 27.4% to 27.

High + substantial overlap Some + little overlap

What the picture counts

Jobs in occupations with higher task-overlap ratings. In the full estimate, that is 784,367 of 2,860,276 covered jobs.

What it does not count

Jobs expected to disappear, or tasks already automated. The other 73 jobs are not necessarily safe or unaffected. A task rating cannot predict an individual worker's future.

“Covered” means jobs counted in unemployment-insurance records. Most self-employed work is excluded.

Understand the ratings and their limits →
The headline threshold and what it leaves out

The top two tiers start at a score of 45 out of 100. The earlier cutoff of 50 gives 23.1% instead. County occupation mixes are estimated from industry mix, not observed directly. See the assumptions and alternative cutoffs.

One set of numbers. Two ways to see Colorado.

Size by jobs to see where people work, or use the map to find a place. Color always means the same thing.

Counties sized by jobs

Bigger areas mean more jobs in 2025; darker blue means a larger share in the top two tiers. On phones, bars show the 15 largest job markets instead of rectangles. Every county's figures are in the county table.

Colorado counties sized by 2025 covered employment. Color uses the same exposure-share scale as the map, referenced to Colorado overall. Hatching marks 17 counties with mostly estimated industry employment. The adjacent table lists all 64 counties. Denver Arapahoe El Paso Adams Jefferson Boulder Larimer Douglas Weld Mesa Pueblo Eagle Garfield La Plata Summit Pitkin Routt
  1. Denver 560,749 jobs · 33.1%
  2. Arapahoe 340,882 jobs · 31.0%
  3. El Paso 308,056 jobs · 26.4%
  4. Adams 249,651 jobs · 22.4%
  5. Jefferson 247,212 jobs · 27.1%
  6. Boulder 191,474 jobs · 32.6%
  7. Larimer 171,290 jobs · 24.7%
  8. Douglas 149,574 jobs · 30.8%
  9. Weld 123,439 jobs · 21.1%
  10. Mesa 66,883 jobs · 20.8%
  11. Pueblo 61,514 jobs · 20.6%
  12. Broomfield 40,750 jobs · 35.3%
  13. Eagle 35,609 jobs · 18.8%
  14. Garfield 27,868 jobs · 20.9%
  15. La Plata 27,323 jobs · 23.4%

The 15 largest county job bases, of 64. All 64 counties are in the county table.

All 64 Colorado counties by UI-covered employment, with high+substantial share, exposure band and data quality. Counties marked heavily imputed are the hatched rectangles in the graphic. Bands are cut on unrounded shares, so counties printing the same share here can sit in different bands.
County UI-covered jobs High + substantial share Exposure band Data quality
Denver 560,749 33.1% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Arapahoe 340,882 31.0% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
El Paso 308,056 26.4% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Adams 249,651 22.4% Above the typical county Full
Jefferson 247,212 27.1% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Boulder 191,474 32.6% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Larimer 171,290 24.7% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Douglas 149,574 30.8% Well above the typical Colorado county Full
Weld 123,439 21.1% About typical Full
Mesa 66,883 20.8% About typical Partially imputed
Pueblo 61,514 20.6% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Broomfield 40,750 35.3% Well above the typical Colorado county Partially imputed
Eagle 35,609 18.8% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Garfield 27,868 20.9% About typical Partially imputed
La Plata 27,323 23.4% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Summit 22,484 17.6% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Pitkin 17,753 20.2% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Montrose 17,497 19.5% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Routt 16,323 20.9% About typical Partially imputed
Fremont 14,529 22.4% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Morgan 13,239 17.1% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Gunnison 9,438 21.0% About typical Partially imputed
Chaffee 9,346 20.2% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Montezuma 9,324 20.1% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Delta 8,804 19.1% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Grand 8,193 17.7% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Alamosa 8,171 21.8% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Teller 8,108 21.7% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Logan 7,773 21.8% Above the typical county Partially imputed
San Miguel 6,076 19.2% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Otero 6,032 21.2% About typical Partially imputed
Elbert 5,141 22.4% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Archuleta 4,898 18.1% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Gilpin 4,787 15.9% Well below the typical county Heavily imputed — 86.4% of employment estimated
Prowers 4,695 19.9% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Las Animas 4,636 20.2% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Moffat 4,558 20.4% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Rio Grande 4,409 19.0% Well below the typical county Partially imputed
Yuma 4,046 20.2% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Clear Creek 3,430 21.6% Above the typical county Heavily imputed — 58.2% of employment estimated
Park 3,123 23.9% Well above the typical Colorado county Partially imputed
Kit Carson 3,047 20.7% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Lake 2,963 23.3% Above the typical county Heavily imputed — 54.4% of employment estimated
Rio Blanco 2,858 21.6% Above the typical county Heavily imputed — 50.8% of employment estimated
Ouray 2,192 21.5% About typical Heavily imputed — 60.1% of employment estimated
Lincoln 2,191 23.4% Above the typical county Partially imputed
Huerfano 1,851 20.6% Below the typical county Heavily imputed — 57.9% of employment estimated
Phillips 1,793 19.6% Well below the typical county Heavily imputed — 56.8% of employment estimated
Saguache 1,670 19.8% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Conejos 1,649 18.2% Well below the typical county Heavily imputed — 53.8% of employment estimated
Washington 1,213 20.6% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Bent 1,172 25.3% Well above the typical Colorado county Heavily imputed — 55.4% of employment estimated
Baca 1,164 21.3% About typical Partially imputed
Crowley 1,121 28.8% Well above the typical Colorado county Heavily imputed — 54.8% of employment estimated
Custer 1,026 21.7% Above the typical county Heavily imputed — 52.8% of employment estimated
Costilla 925 21.4% About typical Heavily imputed — 53.6% of employment estimated
Cheyenne 717 21.5% About typical Heavily imputed — 57.6% of employment estimated
Sedgwick 705 20.3% Below the typical county Partially imputed
Mineral 607 24.0% Well above the typical Colorado county Heavily imputed — 63.1% of employment estimated
Jackson 558 21.5% About typical Heavily imputed — 65.2% of employment estimated
Dolores 526 24.5% Well above the typical Colorado county Heavily imputed — 54.2% of employment estimated
Kiowa 491 21.3% About typical Partially imputed
San Juan 448 21.0% About typical Heavily imputed — 75.4% of employment estimated
Hinsdale 302 23.1% Above the typical county Partially imputed

Counties on the map

County size here represents land, not jobs. Select a county for its figures, or use the county table.

Interactive map loads here. Every county's numbers are in the county table.

Plate II

Key findings

One-line versions; the findings page carries the full statements, the county links, and the author's interpretation. Every figure is computed from the published dataset.

  1. About one in four jobs falls in the top two tiers

    A quarter or more of Colorado's UI-covered employment — 784,367 of 2,860,276 jobs, or 27.4% — is estimated to be in occupations with high or substantial AI exposure under human task ratings from 2023 (exposure score 45.0 or more of 100; not a job-loss forecast). Full finding

  2. Higher-overlap work accounts for a larger share of pay

    High- and substantial-exposure occupations account for 27.4% of Colorado's jobs but 34.8% of its payroll, and the payroll share exceeds the job share in all 64 counties — exposure skews toward higher-wage work. Full finding

  3. The highest shares are in Front Range metro counties

    The five counties with the largest share of jobs in high- or substantial-exposure occupations — Broomfield (35.3%), Denver (33.1%), Boulder (32.6%), Arapahoe (31.0%), and Douglas (30.8%) — are all Front Range metro counties, and together they hold 44.9% of the state's UI-covered employment. Full finding

  4. County shares vary, but the estimates vary in strength too

    The share of jobs in high- or substantial-exposure occupations runs from 15.9% in Gilpin County to 35.3% in Broomfield County — more than double, though Gilpin's occupation mix is the most heavily estimated in the atlas (86.4% of its employment in industry cells suppressed in the public data). Full finding

  5. In observed Claude use, assistance leads automation

    In observed AI usage (Anthropic Economic Index, Sept 2025), Colorado conversations lean toward augmentation over automation — 53.9% to 46.1%, a stronger augmentation lean than the 50.9%-to-49.1% U.S. baseline. Full finding

All 6 findings and the interpretation →