South Korean lawyers face the highest exposure to artificial intelligence of any occupation in the country, according to a government labor research institute. The Korea Employment Information Service found that 19.1 percent of workers covered by employment insurance, or 2.92 million people, hold jobs classified as having high AI exposure.
The institute ranked 415 occupations based on an analysis of the abilities they require, using its 2025 survey of incumbent workers and employment-related administrative data. Legal assistants, patent attorneys, biological science technicians and accountants followed lawyers at the top of the list. Journalists and other media professionals ranked 12th.
What the rankings measure
Occupations centered on text interpretation and quantitative data analysis tended to rank near the top, the institute said. A high exposure score does not necessarily mean a job is more likely to disappear. It indicates how closely the skills an occupation requires align with capabilities that AI can perform or support.
Occupations with the lowest exposure included metal-coating and spraying machine operators, plasterers, rice cake makers, and meat-processing and slaughterhouse workers. Those jobs typically require physical work in production, construction or other on-site settings.
Younger workers feel the effect
Workers in their 30s were particularly concentrated in AI-exposed occupations, with 53.1 percent employed in jobs classified as having medium or high exposure. Among workers under 30, employment declined more sharply in highly exposed occupations. With 2022 employment set at 100, the index fell to 86.6 for highly exposed occupations in 2025, compared with 92.5 for low-exposure occupations.
The institute cautioned against attributing that difference solely to generative AI. Employment in highly exposed occupations was already declining before ChatGPT was released in late 2022, and economic and demographic factors - including a shrinking youth population and declining labor force participation - may also have contributed.
"Young people entering the labor market may be more sensitive to the spread of generative AI, and a continued decline in entry-level jobs could adversely affect their ability to gain experience and build skills over the medium to long term," the report said.
The findings come as legal professionals increasingly encounter AI tools in daily work. For lawyers and legal assistants, the exposure ranking reflects how much of the job involves document review, contract analysis and legal research - tasks where AI assistance is already common. Training resources like AI for Legal and an AI Learning Path for Paralegals can help legal professionals understand what the technology can and cannot do in their specific roles.
Why this matters for legal professionals
The report did not find clear evidence that generative AI is driving broad job losses. But it did call for occupation-specific AI competency indicators that would let job seekers assess their AI skills and match with jobs suited to those skills.
For lawyers and legal assistants in South Korea - and by extension, legal professionals elsewhere - the practical takeaway is that AI exposure is not the same as job vulnerability. The skills most exposed to AI assistance are also the skills where AI competency is becoming a differentiator. Legal professionals who understand how to use AI for document review, due diligence and legal research may find themselves better positioned than those who treat the technology as a threat to be avoided.
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