AI changes work, but not the value of people

“A new organizational model is emerging that combines machine intelligence with human judgment. Systems are becoming AI-driven, but remain led by humans.”

According to the recent UWV report, Towards AI that works for everyone, generative AI is now present in almost every sector and role. The impact is felt in the legal world, but also in healthcare, education, industry, and government. We are at the beginning of a major reorganization of work. Not because people are disappearing, but because tasks are changing rapidly.

The AI transition: why now?

The current way of working is reaching its limits. Workload, staff shortages, and a mismatch between supply and demand are putting organizations under pressure. At the same time, efficiency and productivity are increasing rapidly with the possibilities of AI technologies.

AI offers a new direction for solutions: systems that perform routine tasks independently, allowing people to focus on analysis, consultation, and decision-making. Or as the UWV concludes: “AI is increasingly a ‘digital assistant’ that prepares, executes, and improves work. But only if we teach people how to collaborate with it effectively.”

Research methodology and background

The UWV report is based on:

• In-depth interviews with 19 experts with backgrounds in economics, technology, and the labor market, such as: Mathijs Bouman, Ronald Dekker, and Sabrina Genz.
• An employer survey among 2,300 organizations.
• An analysis of sector and job developments.

The central question: how is work changing due to AI and what does that mean for employees, employers, and policy?

Three phases of AI at work

The report shows that organizations develop in three steps:

1. AI as an assistant
   Think of text generation, summaries, or document analysis. Much AI is already being used as a digital aid for specific tasks.
2. Collaborating with AI
   AI performs work independently, such as customer contact or data processing, under human direction. Humans monitor, adjust, and evaluate.
3. Human directs, AI executes
   In the final phase, AI systems manage entire processes, with humans as supervisors. Think of drafting legal documents, process analyses, or compliance checks.

New relationships: from hierarchy to hybrid

Organizations are changing from classic hierarchical to hybrid structures.

The core question becomes: how much AI per employee is optimal, and vice versa?

This means that AI is gradually becoming part of our work:

• AI takes over preparatory and repetitive tasks, such as summarizing, minute-taking, scheduling, and standard analysis.
• Human professionals become directors: they monitor, correct, and evaluate AI output.
• The role of employees changes from executor to evaluator and decision-maker: with an emphasis on soft skills, critical thinking, and ethics.
• Organizations move from hierarchy to hybrid models: humans manage AI and AI supports humans.

The legal sector, and more specifically entry-level legal positions, are explicitly mentioned in the UWV report as vulnerable. This means they must also focus very emphatically on acquiring excellent AI skills:

• Prompting skills become essential: knowing how to effectively instruct AI (prompting).
• The legal control function grows: assessing the quality, completeness, and reliability of AI output.
• New skills carry more weight: such as ethical awareness, digital literacy, and risk assessment.
• Entry-level legal positions are shifting: juniors in particular must develop more broadly, as standard analysis is partly disappearing.

Where is it already happening?

According to the UWV, some sectors are already using a lot of AI:

• Information and communication: 20% use AI to a (very) high degree. This sector is leading the way.
• Education: 8% use AI intensively, mainly for support in lesson preparation and testing.
• Public administration: relatively high adoption, but not yet intensive (many pilots and explorations).
• Specialized business services (such as lawyers and accountants): above-average use of AI.
• Financial institutions: also above-average use here, especially in analysis and reporting.

In sectors such as construction, agriculture, and hospitality, AI is still hardly used. Nevertheless, the UWV also sees opportunities there in the long term, for example with robotization and visual inspection.

There is therefore a growing use in public administration and legal services. Concrete figures are not known, but it shows that the legal sector is doing its best to move with the times and adapt.

What can you as an organization do now?

The UWV calls on employers not to wait, but to take action now.

Three practical steps:

1. Choose one concrete AI tool
   Start small. For example, let employees use AI for summarizing documents or generating first drafts of texts. Ensure a safe and responsible application.
2. Map it out: where does AI help, and where do humans remain crucial?
   Analyze your work processes. Where can AI provide support, and where is human decision-making or control necessary? Use these insights to redesign roles.
3. Invest in basic AI skills
   Not everyone needs to become a programmer, but everyone must understand what AI does, how it works, and what the risks are. Focus on upskilling, with attention to ethics, collaboration, and critical use.

Conclusion: AI changes work, but people remain necessary

The rise of generative AI changes not only what we do at work, but also how we work and which skills are important. The combination of human judgment and AI systems offers enormous opportunities for productivity, inclusion, and job satisfaction, provided we manage it consciously. For legal professionals, this means: from executive to strategic, from monitoring to guiding.