Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 82% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 88% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 12% of the time, stays with people.
Conduct hearings to recommend or make decisions on claims concerning government programs or other government-related matters. Determine liability, sanctions, or penalties, or recommend the acceptance or rejection of claims or settlements.
16,370 people do this job in the US. $117,860 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on33 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet2 h
- Stays with people5 h
Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 33 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 2 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 5 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Prepare written opinions and decisions (about 9 h); Conduct hearings to review and decide claims regarding issues, such as social program eligibility, environmental protection, or enforcement of health and safety regulations (about 9 h); Determine existence and amount of liability according to current laws, administrative and judicial precedents, and available evidence (about 4 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 88%
- 12%
- 0%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 30%. Today's estimate: 82%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 294th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 14 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.19% to 0.2% (released February and March 2025); 0.2% to 0.16% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.023% to 0.021% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.19% | 96 of 708 | 3 of 14 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.2% | 90 of 703 | 4 of 14 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.2% | 93 of 655 | 3 of 14 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.15% | 108 of 672 | 3 of 14 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.16% | 109 of 677 | 3 of 14 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.023% | 286 of 434 | 1 of 14 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.021% | 294 of 447 | 1 of 14 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare written opinions and decisions.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 25% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | 91%Half by now | |
| Conduct hearings to review and decide claims regarding issues, such as social program eligibility, environmental protection, or enforcement of health and safety regulations.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 23% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Research and analyze laws, regulations, policies, and precedent decisions to prepare for hearings and to determine conclusions.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 11% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 96%Half by now | |
| Determine existence and amount of liability according to current laws, administrative and judicial precedents, and available evidence.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 11% | 1.7 h50 min to 4.2 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Monitor and direct the activities of trials and hearings to ensure that they are conducted fairly and that courts administer justice while safeguarding the legal rights of all involved parties.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 11% | 1.3 h25 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Review and evaluate data on documents, such as claim applications, birth or death certificates, or physician or employer records.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 1.3 h17 min to 3.3 h | 97%Half by now | |
| Conduct studies of appeals procedures in field agencies to ensure adherence to legal requirements and to facilitate determination of cases.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 5% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 4.2 work days | 35%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Rule on exceptions, motions, and admissibility of evidence.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min13 min to 2.5 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Issue subpoenas and administer oaths in preparation for formal hearings.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 2% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Confer with individuals or organizations involved in cases to obtain relevant information.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 1% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Explain to claimants how they can appeal rulings that go against them.Done daily by most who do it. | 1% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Recommend the acceptance or rejection of claims or compromise settlements according to laws, regulations, policies, and precedent decisions.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 0.9% | 1.7 h50 min to 4.2 h | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates85% now, 94% by 2028
- Judicial Law Clerks71% now, 93% by 2028
- Lawyers32% now, 58% by 2028
- Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators63% now, 95% by 2028
- Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators60% now, 63% by 2028
- Equal Opportunity Representatives and Officers51% now, 87% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 82% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 88% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Prepare written opinions and decisions (91% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Conduct hearings to review and decide claims regarding issues, such as social program eligibility, environmental protection, or enforcement of health and safety regulations (100% of the task's time now); and Determine existence and amount of liability according to current laws, administrative and judicial precedents, and available evidence (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Monitor and direct the activities of trials and hearings to ensure that they are conducted fairly and that courts administer justice while safeguarding the legal rights of all involved parties; and Confer with individuals or organizations involved in cases to obtain relevant information. Together such tasks are about 12% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks, the 294th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 14 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 30%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 14 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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