# Do You Need to Rewrite Job Descriptions for AI? A Template

Canonical URL: https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/rewrite-job-descriptions-for-ai
Publication: Dan Fitzpatrick Insights
Author: Dan Fitzpatrick
Topic: AI and the Future of Work
Published: 2026-10-13T15:40:57.000Z
Modified: 2026-10-13T15:40:58.484Z

Headcount stays flat when a team starts using AI, so nobody thinks the job changed. This guide gives you the Core and Margin Rule and a one-hour role review sheet you can copy for every role in your business.

## In brief

Rewrite only the part of a job description that has drifted. Keep a short stable core, add a dated margin listing what AI now does, what the person must still decide and the review date, and agree in advance what happens to the time AI saves.

## Key takeaways

- Flat headcount does not mean flat jobs: 95 percent of UK firms using generic AI tools reported no headcount impact (BCC and Essex, March 2026, 668 businesses), yet bespoke adopters were more likely to report role changes.
- The Core and Margin Rule keeps a stable core that says what the role is for and a dated margin that records what AI does and what the person decides.
- Sort every task into Hand over, Share or Keep, and write the check that would catch a wrong result.
- If the check fails the Loop Test, the task moves to Keep or the check changes.
- The margin is a working document, not a contract change, but Acas says any change to terms must be agreed by both sides.
- Decide before the first review what happens to time AI saves, or every saved hour becomes new work and staff stop telling you what AI does.
- One hour per role, with the person rather than about them, is enough to start.

Yes, but only the part that has drifted. Give each role a short, stable core, then add a dated margin that lists what AI now does or helps with, what the person must still decide, and the day you will look again. Most small businesses never touch the document, so it quietly stops describing the job. One hour per role fixes that.

Pull out the job description for your office manager, your lead estimator or your head of client services. Check the date at the bottom, if there is one. Then ask the person what they did last Tuesday between ten and noon. If the two do not match, you are not alone, and the gap is wider than it looks, because nothing about the business changed in a way you could see.

## Why do job descriptions go stale when AI arrives?

They go stale because the number of people stays the same, so nobody thinks the job moved. In March 2026 the British Chambers of Commerce and the University of Essex published [a survey of 668 UK businesses](https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Powering-Productivity-AI-and-the-Future-of-UK-Work_FINAL.pdf), most of them small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs, or SMEs in the UK and Europe). Among firms using only generic AI tools (265 of them), 95 percent reported no impact on headcount over the previous 12 months. The same report says that firms adopting bespoke AI "are more likely to report adjustments to job roles, changes in skill requirements" and shifts in staffing than generic-tool users.

The US picture rhymes. On October 8, 2026, the New York Fed published [an analysis of its 2025 Small Business Credit Survey](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/10/ai-adoption-and-employment-expectations-evidence-from-a-survey-of-small-business-owners/), covering 5,248 US employer firms surveyed from September to November 2025. It found that 46 percent of those firms were using AI tools, and that "77 percent of respondents reported no change in their firm's current labor costs from the use of AI."

Here is my reading, and it is my reading, not the authors'. Flat headcount and flat labor costs tell you how many seats you have. They say nothing about what the person in the seat does at two in the afternoon. Take a hypothetical coordinator who now has an AI tool draft her customer replies. Her title is the same. But her day has become part editor and part checker, and her job description still says "prepare customer correspondence." The most important task she has, catching the wrong answer before it goes out, is written down nowhere.

## What is the Core and Margin Rule?

The Core and Margin Rule is a simple way to keep a job description honest about AI without rewriting it every quarter.

> The Core and Margin Rule is how I suggest a business keeps a job description honest about AI: keep a short stable core that says what the role is for, add a dated margin that lists what AI now does or helps with and what the person must still decide, and review the margin on a fixed date rather than when something goes wrong.

The core is the part of the job that should survive any tool: why the role exists, the outcomes it owns, and the authority the person has. You change it rarely, and only by agreement. The margin is a single page beside it that moves. It records which tasks AI now drafts, summarizes or checks, which decisions stay with the person, and when the two of you will look at it again.

Others have landed in a similar place. In a September 10, 2026 piece for Irish employers, [Legal Island's Barry Phillips](https://legal-island.ie/employment-law-hub/healthy-ai-adoption-rates-but-is-your-job-description-keeping-up) recommends a stable core in the job description plus a current work plan that records AI-assisted tasks and agreed review of role changes. My version adds one thing: a named list of what the person must still decide. That list is where the accountability sits, and it is the one most businesses leave blank.

## How do you review a role in one hour?

Sit down with the person, not about them, and fill in the sheet below together. The sort in step two borrows its logic from [Singapore's guide to job redesign in the age of AI](https://pdpc.gov.sg/help-and-resources/2020/12/a-guide-to-job-redesign-in-the-age-of-ai-(summary)), which breaks a job into tasks and sorts each one into "Recommend to Automate," "Recommend to Augment human capabilities," or "Recommend to Remain in human hands." I use plainer labels: Hand over, Share and Keep.

1. **List the tasks.** Ten minutes. Ask what they actually did last week, then open the old job description and add anything it lists that they no longer touch.
2. **Sort each task.** Fifteen minutes. Hand over means AI drafts and the person checks. Share means AI helps and the person leads. Keep means the person alone does it.
3. **Write the check.** Fifteen minutes. For every Hand over and Share task, write what the person looks at to catch a wrong result, and apply the Loop Test below.
4. **Name the decisions.** Ten minutes. Write down the calls that stay with the person, in the form "decides whether...".
5. **Set the date.** Ten minutes. Put a review date in the sheet, and agree what happens to time AI saves.

Copy this and fill it in:

> **Role:** ______ **Person:** ______ **Reviewed on:** ______ **Next review:** ______
>
> **CORE (change only by agreement)**
> Why this role exists: ______
> Outcomes it owns: ______
> Authority it holds: ______
>
> **MARGIN (changes at each review)**
>
> | Task | Hand over / Share / Keep | AI's part | The person's part | The check that catches a wrong result |
> |---|---|---|---|---|
> | | | | | |
>
> **Decisions that stay with this person:** decides whether ______; decides whether ______.
> **What happens to time saved:** ______ (agreed in advance)
> **Learning goal before next review:** ______

Keep the margin to one page. If it will not fit on one page, the role has too many tasks and that is a finding in itself.

## What does a finished margin look like?

A finished margin is specific enough that a new colleague could read it and know how the job really runs. Here is a hypothetical example for an office coordinator in an 18-person property management firm.

| Task | Sort | AI's part | Her part | The check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Routine replies to tenants | Hand over | Drafts the reply from her notes | Reads every draft before sending | She compares each reply to the original message |
| Meeting notes | Hand over | Turns the recording into notes | Corrects names and dates | She checks the action list against what she remembers agreeing |
| Contractor quotes | Share | Summarizes the quotes side by side | Compares the figures to the quotes themselves | Totals checked by hand on anything over the approval limit |
| Complaints | Keep | None | Reads and decides who deals with it | n/a |

Decisions that stay with her: whether a complaint goes to the landlord, and anything that changes what a tenant or a landlord is owed. Review date: the first Monday of next quarter. Time saved: the first two hours a week go to clearing the backlog of contractor follow-ups, and after that her manager and she agree the next use together.

Nothing in that table is clever. It is useful because it makes the invisible task, the checking, a visible part of the job.

## Which tasks should stay in human hands?

A task stays in human hands when the person checking it would not catch a mistake in time or could not undo it. I use the Loop Test to decide.

> The Loop Test is three questions I ask before accepting "a human checks it" as an answer: Would that person notice a wrong result without being told to look for it? Would they notice in time to stop it mattering? And if they missed it, could the work be put back? Oversight that survives all three is a safeguard. Oversight that fails any of them is a signature.

Run it on the check column. If a check fails any of the three questions, move the task from Hand over or Share to Keep, or change the check. This is also where [the first rung of a career](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/ai-and-entry-level-jobs-small-business) tends to wobble: the tasks a junior used to learn on are often the easiest to hand over, so decide on purpose which ones you keep for learning.

If you cannot say whose decision a Keep item is, you have an ownership question rather than a job description question. [Who decides about AI in a family business](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/ai-in-family-business) gives a simple test for whether a call belongs to an owner or a manager, and it works in firms that are not family-run.

## Do you need to change anyone's contract?

Not for the margin, and that is why it is a margin. The core is the part that touches the terms of the job, and the margin is a working document. But the line is easy to cross by accident. Acas, the UK's employment advice service, says plainly on its page about [changing an employment contract](https://www.acas.org.uk/changing-an-employment-contract) that "Any changes must be agreed by both the worker and employer." If the margin quietly adds duties the person never agreed to, you have changed the job without saying so.

Legal Island's Phillips puts the risk well: without that conversation, "flexibility can become a polite word for an ever-expanding job." The fairest rule I know is to decide before the first review what happens to the time AI saves. If every saved hour is refilled with new work, people will stop telling you what AI does for them, and you will lose the information the margin depends on.

This is a way of thinking, not legal advice. Employment rules differ by country and, in the US, by state, so if a review leads toward changing someone's duties formally, check your handbook and speak to an employment adviser first.

## What I See When I Train Business Teams

The question I hear most from staff after a first session is not about the tool. It is some version of: am I allowed to do my job this way? A written margin answers that in advance. It tells the person what they may hand over, what they must check and what is theirs to decide, which is the ground the second and third questions of the Readiness Test cover: What may I do with it? Who decides when it goes wrong?

I have advised education ministries and worked with organizations including Welsh Water and Hyve Group, and I keep coming back to one observation, which is a pattern rather than research: written rules fall behind practice. A job description is the easiest written rule to forget, because nobody is ever irritated by it.

The point of the margin is not to control. It is to let people use AI in the open.

## What to do this week

Pick the three roles where you know AI is used most. Book an hour with each person this week, using the sheet above. Write the margin together, name the decisions that stay with them, and put the next review in both calendars. Then send the finished margins to anyone starting soon: a new hire who sees what the job really is on day one gets far more from [new hire training](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/ai-training-for-new-hires).

If your team is using AI but nobody has shown them how to use it well, that is exactly what my [AI training for teams](https://theaieducator.io/ai-training-for-business?utm_source=business.theaieducator.io&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rewrite-job-descriptions-for-ai) is built for. And if you want to see where your business stands before you review a single role, the [Business AI Readiness Scorecard](https://theaieducator.io/business-ai-readiness?utm_source=business.theaieducator.io&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rewrite-job-descriptions-for-ai) takes about five minutes.

## Sources and further reading

- British Chambers of Commerce and University of Essex (ISER), [Powering Productivity: AI and the Future of UK Work](https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Powering-Productivity-AI-and-the-Future-of-UK-Work_FINAL.pdf), March 2026. Survey of 668 UK businesses, most of them SMEs.
- Will Aarons and Asani Sarkar, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, [AI Adoption and Employment Expectations: Evidence from a Survey of Small Business Owners](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/10/ai-adoption-and-employment-expectations-evidence-from-a-survey-of-small-business-owners/), Liberty Street Economics, October 8, 2026. 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, 5,248 US employer firms.
- Barry Phillips, Legal Island, [Healthy AI Adoption Rates... but is Your Job Description Keeping Up?](https://legal-island.ie/employment-law-hub/healthy-ai-adoption-rates-but-is-your-job-description-keeping-up), September 10, 2026. Ireland.
- Acas, [Changing an employment contract](https://www.acas.org.uk/changing-an-employment-contract), checked October 13, 2026. Great Britain. The page carries no date.
- Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission site, [A Guide to Job Redesign in the Age of AI (summary)](https://pdpc.gov.sg/help-and-resources/2020/12/a-guide-to-job-redesign-in-the-age-of-ai-(summary)). The page URL dates it to December 2020; the page itself shows no date.

*Dan Fitzpatrick, The AI Educator, is a Forbes contributor and bestselling author who advises governments and system leaders on AI. [About Dan](https://theaieducator.io/about)*

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I need to rewrite job descriptions for AI?

Only the part that has drifted. Keep the core, which says why the role exists and what it owns, and add a dated margin recording what AI now does and what the person decides. Most roles need an hour of review, not a rewrite, and the margin is checked again on a set date.

### What should a job description say about AI?

It should say what the role is for, which tasks AI drafts or helps with, which decisions stay with the person, and how the work is checked. Keep the stable parts in the core and the changing parts in a dated margin, so the document stays accurate without constant edits.

### Do I need employee consent to change duties because of AI?

Changes to the terms of a job generally need agreement. Acas says any changes to an employment contract must be agreed by both the worker and the employer. A margin that only records how work is done is different, but check with an employment adviser before formally changing duties.

### How often should I review roles as AI changes?

Pick a fixed date, such as the first Monday of each quarter, rather than reviewing when something goes wrong. A short review with the person, using the one-page sheet, takes about an hour for each role and keeps the margin current as tools and habits change.

### Which tasks should stay with a person rather than AI?

Keep tasks where the person checking would not notice a wrong result, would not notice in time, or could not put the work back. Those three questions are the Loop Test. Decisions that change what a customer or colleague is owed should also stay with a named person.

### What should I do with the time AI saves?

Decide in advance, together with the person. If every saved hour is refilled with new tasks, people stop reporting what AI does for them. Agree where the first hours go, such as clearing a backlog, and when you will agree the next use at the review.

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Source: [Do You Need to Rewrite Job Descriptions for AI? A Template](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/rewrite-job-descriptions-for-ai)
Publisher: [The AI Educator](https://theaieducator.io)