AI Resilience Report forAdministrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers

Right now, AI is mostly augmenting the work of administrative law judges and hearing officers — not replacing them. A recent random-sample survey reported that more than 60% of responding federal judges have used at least one AI tool in their judicial work, while only 22.4% use AI tools on a weekly or daily basis, and they mostly use it for conducting legal research (30%) and reviewing documents (15.5%). Interview research from West Virginia University found judges turning to the technology to summarize lengthy documents, organize case materials, draft speeches and prepare questions ahead of oral arguments, treating it like a junior assistant — helpful for administrative or preparatory tasks, but not a substitute for legal reasoning or final judgment.

At federal agencies, the Social Security Administration is launching a Policy Assistant Tool (PAT), an AI-powered chatbot designed to give employees access to information more quickly ^[1], while the Department of Labor's AI Literacy Framework ^[2] supports workforce adjudicators in using AI responsibly.

Adoption is moving forward but cautiously. The American Bar Association's April 2026 update notes that over 60 percent of responding judges use at least one AI tool in their chambers, mostly for legal research and document review ^[3], and federal agencies are following the Administrative Conference of the United States' new statement of principles for administrative adjudication ^[4]. Tools are cheap and commercially available (ChatGPT, Westlaw AI, Lexis+ AI, CoCounsel), and agencies face huge case backlogs, which makes the economics attractive.

But several brakes slow things down: "hallucinations," or instances in which AI generates false or misleading information are a top concern, as are privacy, cybersecurity, and public trust — judges worry that even a single error like that could affect confidence in the courts. At an IAPP Global Summit panel, federal judges emphasized that the speed of technological advancement is outpacing society's ability to effectively regulate it ^[5]. The good news for young people eyeing this career: due process requires a human decision-maker, so the judgment, empathy, and ethical reasoning you bring will remain core to the job — AI will mostly handle the paperwork around it.