Can Agents Work?

Jobs / Design, media, and writing / 27-3043.05

Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers

Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.

US jobs
47,940 (SOC 27-3043 group, "Writers and Authors")
Median wage
$76,910 a year
Job family
Design, media, and writing

Can agents do the work of poets, lyricists and creative writers?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Design, media, and writing:

  • Task levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. OSWorld-Verified includes tasks in image, slide, and document apps, and the best agent passes 90.2% of all its computer tasks. No task-level benchmark in our collection scores the quality of design or writing work.
  • Project levelNot yetOn the Remote Labor Index, which includes graphic design, video, 3D, audio, and web projects from freelance platforms, the best agent completed 15.8% of projects to a standard a client would accept. GDPval deliverables score higher (84.9% wins or ties against professionals, reported by OpenAI), but those tasks are one-shot and fully specified.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in design, media, and writing, not always this occupation's tasks.

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Write fiction or nonfiction prose, such as short stories, novels, biographies, articles, descriptive or critical analyses, and essays.
  • Develop factors such as themes, plots, characterizations, psychological analyses, historical environments, action, and dialogue to create material.
  • Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers, directors, or producers.
  • Choose subject matter and suitable form to express personal feelings and experiences or ideas, or to narrate stories or events.
  • Prepare works in appropriate format for publication, and send them to publishers or producers.
  • Conduct research to obtain factual information and authentic detail, using sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, and interviews.
  • Confer with clients, editors, publishers, or producers to discuss changes or revisions to written material.
  • Plan project arrangements or outlines, and organize material accordingly.
  • Follow appropriate procedures to get copyrights for completed work.
  • Attend book launches and publicity events, or conduct public readings.
  • Write narrative, dramatic, lyric, or other types of poetry for publication.
  • Write words to fit musical compositions, including lyrics for operas, musical plays, and choral works.
Other job titles for this occupation (57)

Author · Creative Writer · Fiction Writer · Freelance Writer · Librettist · Lyricist · Nonfiction Writer · Novelist · Poet · Songwriter · Blog Content Writer · Blog Writer · Blogger · Children's Author · Comic Book Writer · Comic Writer · Community Blogger · Content Writer · Continuity Writer · Crossword Puzzle Maker · Documentary Storyteller · Dramatist · Editorial Writer · Fiction Prose Writer · Film Writer · Gag Writer · Game Author · Ghostwriter · Greeting Card Maker · Greeting Card Writer · Humorist · Literary Writer · Magazine Writer · Movie Writer · Music Critic · Nonfiction Prose Writer · Play Writer · Playwright · Poem Writer · Program Writer · Publications Writer · Radio Script Writer · Scenario Writer · Screen Writer · Screenplay Writer · Script Writer · Short Story Writer · Speech Writer · Sports Writer · Story Writer · Travel Writer · TV Script Writer (Television Script Writer) · TV Writer (Television Writer) · Verse Writer · Video Game Script Writer · Video Games Storywriter · Writer