Are All Lawyers Screwed by AI? Actually No

Anthropic analyzed which jobs AI impacts the most. (See here for summary.)

• The hardest hit jobs (where AI is already performing 67-75% of tasks): coders, customer service reps, data entry workers.
• The next hardest hit: financial analysts (AI does modeling and number-crunching well), office administrators (facing 90% theoretical exposure even if adoption is lagging), and computer/math workers (current exposure at 33%).
• 30% of US workers are deemed safe from AI; these jobs “do not appear in AI usage data at any meaningful level” because they are “built around physical presence, sensory judgment, and reading the room in real time.”
  • Courtroom lawyers fall in this safe category. The study notes their work “demands physical presence and live advocacy” while AI “has no body, no hands, and no instincts.”
  • Also on the safe list: cooks, motorcycle mechanics, lifeguards, bartenders, agricultural workers.
• Today there isn’t an unemployment crisis. “The study finds no measurable rise in joblessness among high-exposure workers since ChatGPT launched.” But “the crack is showing up in hiring instead. Among workers aged 22 to 25, the monthly job-finding rate in high-exposure occupations has fallen roughly 14% since ChatGPT’s arrival.”
• How to AI proof yourself? Focus on the advocacy and judgment that AI can’t replicate like the ability to read the room and provide nuanced counsel in person, not just in the courtroom but also the boardroom or during high-stakes negotiations.