Legislators
In short: today's best AI models could do about 48% 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 71% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 28% of the time, stays with people.
Develop, introduce, or enact laws and statutes at the local, tribal, state, or federal level. Includes only workers in elected positions.
$108,510 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on19 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet10 h
- Stays with people11 h
Legislators, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 19 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 10 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 11 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Organize and maintain campaign organizations and fundraisers, in order to raise money for election or re-election (about 2 h); Determine campaign strategies for media advertising, positions on issues, and public appearances (about 1 h); Seek federal funding for local projects and programs (about 1 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.
- 72%
- 8%
- 20%
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, 12%. Today's estimate: 48%.
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, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 30 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.032% to 0.024% (released February and March 2025); 0.006% to 0.03% (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.032% | 356 of 708 | 6 of 30 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.024% | 393 of 703 | 5 of 30 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.006% | 512 of 655 | 2 of 30 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.013% | 443 of 672 | 3 of 30 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.03% | 337 of 677 | 5 of 30 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 30 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 30 |
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 . 30 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Develop expertise in subject matters related to committee assignments. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | 40%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Prepare drafts of amendments, government policies, laws, rules, regulations, budgets, programs and procedures. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | 40%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Seek federal funding for local projects and programs. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 3.1 work days | 48%Half by now | |
| Evaluate the structure, efficiency, activities, and performance of government agencies. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | 40%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Organize and maintain campaign organizations and fundraisers, in order to raise money for election or re-election. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | 61%Half by now | |
| Represent their government at local, national, and international meetings and conferences. | 7% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 2.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Determine campaign strategies for media advertising, positions on issues, and public appearances. | 4% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | 79%Half by now | |
| Analyze and understand the local and national implications of proposed legislation. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | 71%Half by now | |
| Negotiate with colleagues or members of other political parties in order to reconcile differing interests, and to create policies and agreements. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Review bills in committee, and make recommendations about their future. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.3 work days | 80%Half by now | |
| Serve on commissions, investigative panels, study groups, and committees in order to examine specialized areas and recommend action. | 4% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | 86%Half by now | |
| Attend receptions, dinners, and conferences to meet people, exchange views and information, and develop working relationships. | 4% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people |
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.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Legislators is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 48% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 71% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (67% to 72% across the three paces the site shows). 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 Legislators 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: Organize and maintain campaign organizations and fundraisers, in order to raise money for election or re-election (61% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Determine campaign strategies for media advertising, positions on issues, and public appearances (79% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Seek federal funding for local projects and programs (48% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Legislators stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Represent their government at local, national, and international meetings and conferences; Negotiate with colleagues or members of other political parties in order to reconcile differing interests, and to create policies and agreements; and Attend receptions, dinners, and conferences to meet people, exchange views and information, and develop working relationships. Together such tasks are about 28% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Legislators?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. 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 Legislators?
- 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 30 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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