Skip to main content
Know AI. Prove It.

From administrative assistant to executive assistant

A career change with AI in view: what carries over, what to build, and how AI is changing both jobs.

Can an administrative assistant become an executive assistant?

It is a move the US Department of Labor's occupational database recognizes: O*NET lists executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants as one of the five occupations it rates most closely related to secretaries and administrative assistants, from what people in both jobs do, know and are called. Of the skills the new job rates important, you already work at or above its level in time management. The biggest step up is in service orientation and negotiation. BLS says executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants typically need a high school diploma or equivalent to enter, plus less than 5 years of experience in a related job.

Both jobs, side by sideYour skills, comparedStart free: lesson 1

Both jobs, side by side

Published measures only, each from its own source. We do not blend them into a score.

MeasureAdministrative assistantExecutive assistant
Jobs outlook, 2025 to 2035down 6%about level
Openings a year163,90043,300
Median pay, 2025$47,540$76,590
Typical education to enterHigh school diploma or equivalentHigh school diploma or equivalent
Experience in a related jobNoneLess than 5 years
On-the-job trainingShort-term on-the-job trainingNone
How people use AI on this work29% working with AI, 71% handing tasks over43% working with AI, 57% handing tasks over
How much of the work AI can assist (0 to 1)0.260.26

What these do not mean: the outlook, pay, education and training are the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' ten year projection and worker characteristics, revised every year, and say nothing about any one employer or person. How people use AI comes from Anthropic's Economic Index and describes people who already use one AI assistant. Microsoft Research rates how much AI can assist the work; “Our metrics should not be misconstrued or misrepresented as measuring the ability of AI to replace jobs.”

What you bring

Skills the new job rates important where O*NET rates your current job at or above the level it needs.

  • Time Management

    Managing one's own time and the time of others.

    O*NET level in your job 3.0, needed in the new job 3.0 (of 7); importance there 3.3 (of 5).

What to build

Skills the new job rates important and needs at a level 0.5 or more higher than your current job (on O*NET's scale of 0 to 7), biggest step first.

  • Service Orientation

    Actively looking for ways to help people.

    O*NET level in your job 3.1, needed in the new job 3.8 (of 7); importance there 3.8 (of 5).

  • Negotiation

    Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

    O*NET level in your job 2.1, needed in the new job 2.6 (of 7); importance there 3.0 (of 5).

Where AI already shows up in the new job

Core tasks of the work, from O*NET, that appear in real AI use. Arrive able to direct AI on these and check what it produces.

  • Prepare invoices, reports, memos, letters, financial statements, and other documents, using word processing, spreadsheet, database, or presentation software.
  • Prepare responses to correspondence containing routine inquiries.
  • Manage and maintain executives' schedules.

Everything AI changes for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

What to learn first for the move

The first AI skills for the new job, in order. Each is taught in GAGE's AI literacy program, Certified AI Practitioner: Workplace Foundations.

  1. 1.Draft memos, reports and replies with AI in your executive's voice, and check every fact

    Taught in Module 4, Practical AI Workflow Design and Prompt Engineering

  2. 2.Let AI propose the schedule and travel plan, and keep the final call on priorities

    Taught in Module 5, Critical Thinking and Context Engineering; Module 9, Agentic AI and Workforce Integration

  3. 3.Brief AI agents with clear limits on what they may send or book

    Taught in Module 9, Agentic AI and Workforce Integration; Module 10, AI Security Fundamentals

Start free: lesson 1See the whole program
Direct it. Catch it. Prove it. (56 s)

Show a new employer you can do it

Changing careers means proving yourself to someone who has not seen your work. At GAGE you explain each idea back in your own words and it is graded against the lesson, so your record shows what you understood. An employer can check it with one link.

Other moves from administrative assistant

Other ways into executive assistant

Going the other way? From executive assistant to administrative assistant.

Questions

Can an administrative assistant become an executive assistant?
It is a move the US Department of Labor's occupational database recognizes: O*NET lists executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants as one of the five occupations it rates most closely related to secretaries and administrative assistants, from what people in both jobs do, know and are called. Of the skills the new job rates important, you already work at or above its level in time management. The biggest step up is in service orientation and negotiation. BLS says executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants typically need a high school diploma or equivalent to enter, plus less than 5 years of experience in a related job.
Is an executive assistant safer from AI than an administrative assistant?
No published measure ranks jobs by safety, and we do not blend the measures into one. Through 2035, BLS projects executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants to stay about level, and secretaries and administrative assistants to shrink 6 percent. On how much of the work AI can assist, Microsoft Research rates executive assistant 0.26 and administrative assistant 0.26 out of 1, which its authors say is not a measure of job loss. In both jobs, the person who can direct AI and check its work is the one a team keeps.
What should I learn first to move from administrative assistant to executive assistant?
Draft memos, reports and replies with AI in your executive's voice, and check every fact; Let AI propose the schedule and travel plan, and keep the final call on priorities; Brief AI agents with clear limits on what they may send or book. Those are the first AI skills for the new job, and GAGE teaches each of them in its AI literacy program. The first lesson is free.

How this move was chosen, and sources

O*NET lists executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants as one of the five occupations it rates most closely related to secretaries and administrative assistants (number 1 in its order). We publish a move only when O*NET places it among the ten most related and both jobs have a page here, and we keep O*NET's order. A skill is compared when the new job rates it 3 or more for importance (of 5); it is a step up at a level 0.5 or more higher (of 7); it carries over when your current job is rated at or above the level needed. Ratings O*NET marks as low precision are left out.

CallEmailHelp