ABS region (SA4) · South Australia

AI exposure in Adelaide - Central and Hills

Published 16 October 2026 · Updated 16 October 2026 · What's changed

In Adelaide - Central and Hills, about 16,800 people, or 11 per cent of those with a job, work in occupations with a high automation exposure score (60 or more out of 100). The region's average score is 38.6 out of 100, the 21st most exposed of the 89 regions we rank. South Australia scores 36.5; Australia 37.4.

Job counts come from the 2021 Census, taken in August 2021, so they are five years old. The Census was taken while New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT were in lockdown, and counts are by where people live, not where they work. The mix of jobs in an area may have changed since. 2026 Census data will be published when it becomes available in 2027.

People in high-exposure jobs
16,80011% of those with a job
National rank
21 of 891 is most exposed. Scores run 33.2 to 42.6
Adelaide - Central and Hills score
38.6out of 100
South Australia / Australia
36.5 / 37.4out of 100

Score 60 or more · most people first

Jobs with high exposure

Map of Adelaide - Central and Hills, with an inset showing where it sits in South Australia.
Adelaide - Central and Hills, an ABS region (SA4), in green. Inset: where it sits in South Australia. Boundaries: ABS, Australian Statistical Geography Standard Edition 3 (2021), CC BY 4.0.
  1. General Clerks71 out of 100
    About 3,100 people, automation exposure score 71 out of 100
  2. Receptionists66 out of 100
    About 2,000 people, automation exposure score 66 out of 100
  3. Software and Applications Programmers63 out of 100
    About 1,800 people, automation exposure score 63 out of 100
  4. Accounting Clerks71 out of 100
    About 1,300 people, automation exposure score 71 out of 100
  5. Bookkeepers69 out of 100
    About 1,000 people, automation exposure score 69 out of 100

A score of 60 or more means generative AI could automate much of the job's day-to-day tasks. It does not mean the job will go. The 60 cut-off is ours, not JSA's. 94 per cent of employed people here work in jobs that have a score.

South Australia average 36.5

Within South Australia

RegionScoreHigh-exposure jobsNational rank
Adelaide - Central and Hills (this page)38.616,80021
Adelaide - West37.613,70028
Adelaide - South37.220,00032
Adelaide - North35.921,90046
Barossa - Yorke - Mid North33.93,70074
South Australia - Outback33.62,50084
South Australia - South East33.36,20087

Average score out of 100

Against the state and Australia

Bar chart of average automation exposure score out of 100: Adelaide - Central and Hills 38.6, South Australia 36.5, Australia 37.4.

For journalists

Quote this

“About 16,800 people in Adelaide - Central and Hills work in jobs where AI can already do much of the routine work. That doesn't mean those jobs will disappear, but the work will change, and people here have more reason than most to plan their next step now.”
Stefan Savva, founder, Changing Careers

Changing Careers, AI exposure by region, 16 October 2026, https://changingcareers.com.au/ai-exposure-australia. CC BY 4.0.

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. Licence

Spokesperson

Stefan Savva

Founder, Changing Careers. Available for interview and comment on this data.

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These scores are averages across everyone in an occupation. The free AI exposure check starts from your own job title. It takes about a minute, and you see how your job compares with every other job in Australia.

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About this analysis

Who made it. Produced by Changing Careers, a paid career-transition service. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Jobs and Skills Australia or the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

What's new. Jobs and Skills Australia scores occupations. This analysis maps those scores onto where people live, region by region. This is the first edition, so there is no earlier figure to compare with.

Method

How the score is worked out. We average Jobs and Skills Australia's automation exposure scores across the jobs people in Adelaide - Central and Hills do, weighted by how many people do each one. It measures exposure of tasks, not jobs that will go, and it is not a forecast. Full method · Method (PDF)

Adelaide - Central and Hills is the 21st most exposed of the 89 regions we rank. We will update this when the ABS releases 2026 Census occupation data or when Jobs and Skills Australia updates its scores.