Video Editor

Video editors turn raw footage into a finished film, show, ad or online video: choosing shots, cutting for pace, and adding sound, graphics and captions. AI is already part of that work. Anthropic's 2026 study of how people actually use its Claude chatbot on the job ranked film and video editors 106th of 756 jobs, in the top 15%. In a 2024 survey of 300 entertainment executives, commissioned by the Animation Guild and other creative groups, three in four said generative AI had already helped eliminate, shrink or combine jobs in their division, and the researchers projected that about 21% of US film, TV and animation jobs would be consolidated, replaced or eliminated by 2026. That was a projection from groups that represent workers, and we have not seen a follow-up measuring whether it happened, so treat it as a warning.

The craft itself is harder to automate than writing. A 2025 Microsoft Research study of how much of each job's tasks AI chatbots can help with ranked editors 477th of 785, in the less exposed half. And demand for video keeps rising: BLS projects film and video editor jobs to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, from 39,400 to 40,800, because of overall demand for content and more special effects.

We are lowering this from 4 to 3. The old 4 rested on an Adobe press release about its own AI video tools and on claims about junior editors that no source supported. What we can check shows AI doing a meaningful share of the work, but a government projection of growth and no measured job losses for editors. Our read is that the risk is concentrated at the start of the career: BLS notes that assistant editors keep track of shots and load footage and "may do some of the editing tasks," the routine work AI tools are built to speed up.

What would change this score. If BLS lowers its projection, or studios and agencies start hiring fewer assistant editors because AI handles logging and rough cuts, this goes back to 4.