Should assistants and HR professionals be replaced by AI?
Why I think it is a mistake
Everyone is writing about AI so I thought it’s time I join the club.
From the reading I have done, largely from American sources, there is a desire to replace legal assistants and other support staff with AI tools. I even read about one large company who eliminated their HR department and replaced it with a chat bot. I think these actions are a huge mistake and that there is some subconscious gender based bias at play.
So many of the roles being eliminated in white collar workforces are jobs traditionally dominated by women with soft skills. HR, assistants, law clerks, and even entry level students. Those jobs are first on the chopping block because AI can do them. On the other hand, people in business positions, lawyers and professionals (more often men) are embracing how much more work they can do with the help of AI. Why aren’t we asking how AI can help legal assistants, HR professionals and the like do their job better? Because we don’t value how hard their work actually is.
An HR chatbot may be able to give you the correct answer to a tricky HR question but it will not assist a lawyer-manager with poor people skills be able to communicate difficult messages to their staff. A chat bot cannot help an employee who has entered an office in tears and distress. The “human” part of Human Resources is the most important part. While a chat bot can learn policies and laws that apply to the workplace, it cannot yet read the look on an associate lawyer’s face and determine they are in crisis or on the verge of quitting.
I am also skeptical that legal support staff tasks can or should be replaced by AI. While some tasks will be easier such as scheduling and BF systems, it would be the lawyer’s job to manage these systems are work with the AI. Personally, I’d rather be working with AI on my legal work and leave the administrative Al bots to someone else entirely.
Admittedly, I am very “old school” when it comes to my use of legal support staff. I’ve always delegated heavily as a way to be able to focus on the more difficult and interesting work. For me, my law clerk/office manager is essentially the quarterback of our small team. She keeps the balls in the air, working with technology to do so, and she knows not just what needs to be done, but what each of her lawyers individual needs are to do their best work. She is also excellent at giving me some space to do my deep work by communicating with clients for me and calming their nerves when needed. I don’t think we want to de-personalize the client experience by having them communicate with AI when a lawyer is not available. I know I personally wish to launch the Amazon customer service chatbot into the sun.
Human assistants/support staff can also tell when you need a break and can help you recognize when you might need some help. Their human characteristics are what set them apart from AI.
In my view, HR professionals and legal support staff should be regarded in the same manner as lawyers in our firms. AI will help them do their jobs better, faster and serve more clients in an efficient manner. Eliminating them, in my view, will only lead to more stressful, less human work environments and will make the lawyer’s jobs more difficult.
Proceed with caution before you start replacing these once valued team members with AI.