The short answer. Not wholesale, but paralegals face more pressure from AI than lawyers do. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects little or no employment change from 2025 to 2035 and says AI may reduce demand by speeding up research and document preparation. Document review and first drafts are most exposed; checking output and judgment stay human.
For paralegals, the honest answer has more edges than it does for lawyers. The federal job outlook now names AI as a drag on demand, and the tasks it points to sit at the center of many paralegal jobs.
That's not the whole story, though. The same rules that make lawyers responsible for AI output create real work for the people who check it.
What does AI already do in paralegal work?
AI is strongest at the paper-heavy core of the job. BLS describes paralegals as supporting lawyers "by performing a variety of tasks, such as maintaining and organizing files, conducting legal research, and drafting documents." Those are the tasks generative AI speeds up most, which is why document review and drafting carry the most exposure.
| What AI does today | What stays with the paralegal |
|---|---|
| Document review and organization. Sorts large document sets as responsive or not and flags likely privileged material, which the ABA calls a well-known use | Testing the tool on a sample, escalating close privilege questions, keeping the file defensible |
| Legal research. Finds statutes and cases and drafts summaries | Checking that every authority exists and says what the summary claims |
| Drafting letters and documents. Produces first drafts of correspondence, summaries and routine documents | Facts, names and dates; matching the lawyer's instructions; spotting what's missing |
| Fact investigation. Summarizes transcripts and builds draft timelines | Interviewing people and obtaining affidavits and statements |
| Trial and filing support. Drafts exhibit lists and checklists | Court rules and deadlines, handling exhibits, last-minute judgment calls |
The ABA's ethics opinion on AI also describes how checking can work at scale. A lawyer who relies on AI to "review and summarize numerous, lengthy contracts" would not necessarily have to re-read the whole set if the lawyer "had previously tested the accuracy of the tool on a smaller subset of documents" and found the summaries accurate.
That testing is skilled work, and it's a natural fit for an experienced paralegal.
Illustrative example: a litigation paralegal at a mid-sized firm receives a large document production. An AI review tool does the first pass. The paralegal's time now goes to hand-checking a sample against the tool's calls, chasing the documents it marked as uncertain, and preparing the privilege log for the supervising lawyer to sign.
What does the job outlook say for paralegals?
The BLS outlook is flat, and AI is part of the reason. "Employment of paralegals and legal assistants is projected to show little or no change from 2025 to 2035," according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook. For comparison, BLS projects 5% growth for lawyers over the same decade. The median annual wage for paralegals was $62,890 in May 2025.
BLS is unusually specific about technology here:
"Law firms are expected to continue to be the largest employer of paralegals and legal assistants, as these workers are needed to help prepare and organize legal documents. However, demand for these workers is expected to be limited by advances in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are expected to make paralegals and legal assistants more efficient at tasks such as conducting research and preparing documents, which may reduce demand for these workers."
Flat is not zero. There were 404,900 paralegal and legal assistant jobs in 2025, and BLS adds: "Despite limited employment growth, about 40,800 openings for paralegals and legal assistants are projected each year, on average, over the decade." Most of those come from people changing occupations or retiring.
The profession's ethics rules keep a person in the loop. ABA Formal Opinion 512 says "Managerial lawyers must establish clear policies regarding the law firm's permissible use of GAI, and supervisory lawyers must make reasonable efforts to ensure that the firm's lawyers and nonlawyers comply with their professional obligations when using GAI tools." Paralegals sit in the opinion's "nonlawyers" group, and it adds that supervision includes making sure they "are trained, including in the ethical and practical use of the GAI tools relevant to their work."
NALA, a professional association for paralegals, has published a more upbeat view. Writing in NALA's Q4 2025 Facts & Findings, attorney Michael Kaufman puts it this way: "AI is not replacing paralegals. It is transforming the way legal professionals work." Both can be true at once: fewer new roles than the workload alone would suggest, and more technical work in the roles that remain.
Which skills keep paralegals valuable?
The paralegals who stay in demand move up the workflow, from doing the first pass to running and checking it. Five skills make that shift concrete, and none of them needs a law degree or coding.
- Quality control on AI output. Test a tool on a hand-checked sample before trusting it on a full set, then spot-check as you go. Learn the common failure modes, starting with hallucinations, where a tool confidently invents a case or a quote.
- Clear instructions. A request that names the audience, goal and format beats "Just write it for me." That is prompt engineering, and Question 2 below tests it.
- Knowing what can go where. Client files belong only in tools your firm has approved. The AI governance track covers data handling and policy in plain terms.
- Owning the workflow. Build the templates, checklists and review steps your team uses with AI. The person who designs the process is harder to replace than the person who runs one step of it. The AI skills every team needs is a good starting list.
- The human parts of the case. Interviewing witnesses, obtaining statements, handling exhibits and reassuring an anxious client all stay with people.
Try three real kju questions for paralegals
The three questions below come from kju's daily practice for legal teams, at the easier difficulty level. Every day, kju users answer eight of these, adapted to the concepts they miss.
Question 1. You're in Legal & Compliance at a law firm. You need a first-pass summary of a 60-page contract. What's the most realistic way an AI assistant could help?
- A) Produce a solid first draft in seconds that you then review and edit
- B) Do the whole task perfectly with no need to check its work
- C) Nothing: AI can't help with work like this
- D) Replace your judgment entirely
Answer: A. AI is a first-draft engine: it gets you 80% of the way fast, and your review supplies the judgment. Source
Question 2. You want an AI assistant to help you draft a clause-by-clause contract summary. Which prompt gets the best result?
- A) "Just write it for me"
- B) A prompt naming the audience, goal and format you want
- C) A prompt asking it to be as creative as possible
- D) Several one-word prompts in a row
Answer: B. Specific prompts win: audience, goal and format tell the model what good looks like. Source
Question 3 (true or false). To save time, it's fine to paste client case files into any free public AI chatbot.
- True
- False
Answer: False. Public chatbots may store or train on what you paste. Use your company's approved tools for anything sensitive. Source
What's a good next step for paralegals?
Pick one document you draft often and run it through AI with a fixed checklist: facts, names, dates and citations. Doing that a little every day turns checking into a habit. kju gives you a few minutes of that practice daily.
If you supervise paralegals or run legal operations, remember that Opinion 512 makes training part of supervision. kju trains whole legal teams, paralegals included, with daily practice tailored to each person's role. kju for organizations and kju for legal show how it works.
To see how the same shift looks for the lawyers you support, read Will AI replace lawyers?, or step back to the overview in What jobs will AI replace?
Frequently Asked Questions
- Will paralegals be replaced by AI?
- Not wholesale, but demand is under pressure. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects little or no change in paralegal employment from 2025 to 2035 and names AI as a factor that may reduce demand. It still expects about 40,800 openings a year, mostly to replace people who retire or change careers.
- Which paralegal tasks are most exposed to AI?
- Document review, legal research and first drafts. BLS expects AI to make paralegals more efficient at conducting research and preparing documents. Tasks built on people and judgment, such as interviewing witnesses, obtaining affidavits and supporting lawyers at trial, are far less exposed.
- Is becoming a paralegal still a good career?
- It can be, if you build AI skills into it. The median wage was $62,890 in May 2025, and openings stay steady even with flat growth. Paralegals who can run and check AI-assisted review and drafting are better placed as the work changes than those who only do the first pass.
- Can paralegals use AI tools at work?
- Yes, within firm policy. ABA Formal Opinion 512 says managing lawyers must set clear policies on permissible AI use and supervising lawyers must make sure nonlawyer staff are trained in the ethical and practical use of these tools. Client files belong only in approved tools.