Remote Labor Index – Measuring AI Automation of Remote Work [pdf] (www.remotelabor.ai)

Researchers have introduced the Remote Labor Index (RLI), a pioneering benchmark designed to measure AI's ability to automate remote work. Unlike existing benchmarks that focus on isolated tasks, RLI assesses AI agents on their performance across a diverse range of economically valuable projects sourced from freelance platforms. The benchmark includes over 240 projects that span various categories and complexities, from data visualization to game development, reflecting the realities of the remote labor market. Significantly, the findings reveal that even the leading AI agents currently achieve a meager automation rate of just 2.5%, indicating a substantial gap in their ability to autonomously complete complex tasks typically managed by human professionals. This low performance highlights the challenges AI still faces in replicating the diverse skills required in remote work settings. The RLI offers a standardized empirical framework that will enable stakeholders—including researchers and policymakers—to better understand AI's impact on the workforce and navigate the transition toward an increasingly automated labor market. Such insights are crucial as society grapples with the economic implications of AI-driven automation.