Career Explorer Science
Changing shape
Historians
Research, analyze, record, and interpret the past as recorded in sources, such as government and institutional records, newspapers and other periodicals, photographs, interviews, films, electronic media, and unpublished manuscripts, such as personal diaries and letters.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 10% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is very high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it very high), and US jobs are projected to change by +3.0% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on creative vision.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $76,750
- Job growth to 2035
- +3.0%
- Openings a year
- 300
- People doing it (2025)
- 3,800
- Usual route in
- Master's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Present research or technical information
- Research historical or social issues
- Gather information from physical or electronic sources
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Collect information about patients or clients
What the work looks like
- Gather historical data from sources such as archives, court records, diaries, news files, and photographs, as well as from books, pamphlets, and periodicals.
- Organize data, and analyze and interpret its authenticity and relative significance.
- Prepare publications and exhibits, or review those prepared by others, to ensure their historical accuracy.
- Organize information for publication and for other means of dissemination, such as via storage media or the Internet.
- Conduct historical research as a basis for the identification, conservation, and reconstruction of historic places and materials.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Atmospheric and space scientistsChanging shape, Index 11, +2.6%
- Social science research assistantsGrows with AI, Index 16, +5.0%
- Environmental scientists and specialists, including healthGrows with AI, Index 34, +6.1%
- Database architectsGrows with AI, Index 13, +9.4%
Also known as: Collections Specialist, Historian, Historical Interpreter, Researcher, County Historian, Historic Architectural Resources Curator, Historic Interpreter, Historic Preservation Coordinator.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.