Top 5 Jobs in Government That Are Most at Risk from AI in Lebanon - And How to Adapt

AI is already reshaping public service work in Lebanon: at the national level the LEAP initiative aims to build an AI-powered tech hub and create jobs, while practical governance models show how to manage risk and retain trust.

Municipal examples - such as the City of Lebanon's transparent City of Lebanon AI Registry and its ADM-143 City of Lebanon ADM-143 Use of Artificial Intelligence policy - demonstrate policies, audits, and staff training that cut paperwork (EMSReports.ai reduced EMS documentation from 40 to 10 minutes) and protect residents.

For public servants facing automation of routine tasks, targeted reskilling - for example through practical programs like Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus - is a concrete next step to stay relevant and lead implementation safely.

Selection of the top five government roles combined three practical lenses: where routine, repeatable work makes automation most likely; how national and local readiness shape adoption; and whether local pilots already demonstrate technical feasibility.

Lebanon's placement in the 2023 Government AI Readiness Index (76th of 193) helped flag sectors with high exposure and limited buffers (Lebanon's AI readiness ranking), while the City of Lebanon's ADM-143 policy shows municipal appetite for responsible pilots and governance that could accelerate change (City of Lebanon ADM-143 AI policy).

Concrete local evidence came from internships and projects that proved models can read diverse document layouts and transcribe Arabic speech - using tools like YOLO-NAS and LayoutXLM to connect OCR outputs across Arabic and English forms - making clerical and processing roles especially exposed (document layout and Arabic speech pilots).

Broader constraints - trust in institutions and the need for digital identity foundations - also guided weighting so recommendations prioritize transparent reskilling and accountable pilots.

“We are facing two transformative waves – cloud and generative AI,” said Robert Ptaszynski, Partner and Head of Digital & Innovation at KPMG in Saudi Arabia and Levant.

Clerical staff in the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities - the people who type alphanumeric records, run 10‑key sheets and keep registries up to date - are among the most exposed to automation because their daily work is predictable and structured; job templates for data entry roles list duties like “enter data into the computer system” and 10‑key speed as core skills (Data Entry Clerk role overview and tasks).

Recent Lebanese pilots show the technical side is suddenly doable: models that read complex document layouts and transcribe Arabic and English forms reduce the human workload on mixed-language paperwork (Lebanon AI document layout and Arabic speech pilots), meaning routine entries can be auto-filled or suggested - a practical risk when an AI can shave repetitive report time by three‑quarters, turning a 40‑minute form into a 10‑minute job.

The policy response should pair cautious pilots with concrete reskilling: targeted courses and implementation roadmaps help clerks move from keystrokes to oversight, data validation and AI‑assisted quality control (AI implementation roadmap for government agencies in Lebanon).

Customs officers at the General Directorate of Customs are on the frontline of an efficiency wave: AI-powered risk assessment, document OCR and HS‑code classification can rapidly spot non‑compliance in invoices and declarations and shave clearance time, while computer‑vision tools flag anomalies in X‑ray images for targeted inspection - so one officer no longer needs to eyeball every page but can focus on the few true high‑risk cases (imagine a freighter with 24,000 containers and an algorithm lighting up the single box that needs a physical check).

These capabilities - summarised in industry writeups on AI‑based risk assessment and automated document checks (AI-based risk assessment and document automation) and in inventories of real use cases for cargo classification and anomaly detection (CBP cargo inspection and classification use cases) - promise faster trade but also raise the need for explainable, auditable systems and reskilling so officers move from data entry to validation, intelligence review and cybersecurity.

For Lebanon, where supply‑chain resilience is a policy priority, integrating pilots with clear governance and training roadmaps - linking AI pilots to supply‑chain and geopolitical risk intelligence - is the practical path to boost facilitation without sacrificing oversight (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus (supply‑chain and geopolitical risk intelligence for Lebanon)).

“With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.46%, the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to reach an astounding $1.81 trillion by 2030.”

Tax auditors at Lebanon's Ministry of Finance face fast-moving change as AI turns ledger sweeps and journal‑entry testing into algorithmic searchlights: anomaly detectors that helped EY build Helix GLAD can scan millions of general‑ledger rows to surface the “needles in the haystack” (in a 100‑million‑entry dataset, maybe ten entries spur concern) and produce visual maps that explain why items were flagged, while research designs like the Tax Avoidance Detection System (TADS) combine deterministic rules with LSTM time‑series models to catch evolving avoidance patterns across large datasets; together these approaches let audit teams move from spot samples to risk‑based, population‑level review, speeding case selection but raising clear needs for explainability, data integration and human‑in‑the‑loop governance.

Practical government tools (Microsoft's anomaly‑detection playbook and commercial audit assistants such as CoCounsel Audit) show how extraction, cross‑checking and instant risk scoring can reduce manual reconciliation and surface mismatches between VAT, invoices and tax returns - a direct efficiency and revenue protection opportunity for Lebanon if pilots embed transparency, phased deployment and training so auditors shift toward oversight, model validation and investigative follow‑up rather than pure data entry.

“With continued support from Microsoft, we are able to develop additional scenarios and meet specific needs from our member countries to really address the diverse needs of tax administrations around the world.” - Marcio F. Verdi, Executive Secretary, CIAT

Passport and immigration officers at the Directorate General of General Security manage a dense mix of frontline checks, biometric passport issuance and residency services that make their work uniquely sensitive in Lebanon - missing or irregular documents still trigger questioning at checkpoints and consular processes can be slow, so accuracy matters as much as speed (U.S. State Department travel guidance for Lebanon entry, identification, and security).

General Security already publishes exact application items, photo and A4 form rules, and regional office contacts for passport and residency services, so these desks run on repeatable, auditable steps that lend themselves to careful digitization while protecting civil liberties (Lebanon General Security biometric passport and application document requirements).

The Lebanese embassy's passport briefing also highlights operational constraints that shape any technology plan - biometric issuance rules, and the reality that diplomatic pouch shipments can take up to three months while DHL express takes roughly 4–8 weeks - so pilots must prioritize explainability, fallback procedures and staff training rather than blunt automation (Embassy of Lebanon passport renewals and processing times).

Practical next steps for officers include shifting time from manual checks to oversight, fraud investigation and managing secure digital workflows, with phased pilots and clear governance to safeguard identity and mobility for all residents.

Administrative court clerks in Lebanon are caught between two forces: tasks that are highly automatable - indexing files, stamping and routing motions, managing dockets and routine correspondence - and a justice system hollowed out by chronic shortages, strikes and power cuts that make any tech transition fragile.

The Lebanon Digital Transformation Strategy 2020–2030 already points to simplifying judicial operations and a unified digital identity as priorities (Lebanon Digital Transformation Strategy 2020–2030 - full strategy document), and OMSAR's Support to Courts Automation work lists concrete infrastructure, training and standards that could enable e‑filing and searchable case registries (OMSAR Support to Courts Automation program details), but pilots must be designed around real constraints on the ground (generators, offline modes, minimal supplies) and strong governance so automation strengthens rather than shortcuts due process.

With intelligent document processing, clerks can shift from repetitive data entry to quality control, chain‑of‑custody oversight and helping judges interpret AI‑flagged items - provided investments in resilience, staff re‑training and transparent workflows accompany any rollout.

The image that lingers is stark: a clerk using a mobile phone's light to read filings during a blackout, underscoring that technology alone won't work without stable basics and accountable reform (see reporting on the judiciary's collapse and strain: TIMEP report on Lebanon's judiciary collapse and strain).

“I won't take bribes,” he told me, “so I have no choice but to work elsewhere to provide for my children and pay the electricity generator bill.”

Lebanon's roadmap to adapt starts with three practical moves: national strategy and governance, local innovation partnerships, and rapid workforce reskilling.

The new OMSITAI–Roland Berger collaboration provides a governance scaffold to design safe pilots and a national ID and payments backbone that agencies can plug into (OMSITAI and Roland Berger partnership to advance Lebanon's national AI strategy); the ICT Knowledge & Innovation Community shows how industry, universities and donors can run real pilots and share infrastructure (ICT Knowledge & Innovation Community launch and roadmap for Lebanon's digital transformation).

At agency level, pilots must be auditable, phased, and tied to fallback procedures so a single explainable model flags true risks while humans retain final authority - practical wins already include form workflows that cut a 40‑minute task to 10 minutes.

Finally, scale the human side: accessible, role‑focused training (for example, a 15‑week Nucamp AI Essentials for Work course) and targeted cybersecurity and entrepreneurship paths ensure clerks, auditors and customs officers move from keystrokes to oversight, validation and innovation (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work 15‑week course syllabus and registration).

“Our collaboration with Roland Berger, leveraging its extensive international expertise, will accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across vital sectors and support our plans to build a sustainable knowledge economy that strengthens Lebanon's position in this critical field.” - Kamal Shehadeh