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

Puerto Rico's public sector is at a pivot point: local surveys show 84% of organizations have applied AI in at least one function and 66% engage with AI regularly, meaning routine municipal tasks - from permitting to call‑center triage - are ripe for automation unless workers adapt (see V2A Consulting's 2024 state of AI report).

At the same time, the Legislature moved quickly in 2025 with bills to create an AI Officer and Advisory Council to guide ethical use, while the Governor's IDEA initiative is already “clearing away” bureaucracy - repealing 251 obsolete regulations and more than 7,200 pages to speed government modernization.

That mix - fast tool adoption, new rules, and real gains in service delivery - creates both risk for administrative roles and clear pathways to reskilling; targeted programs such as the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp can close the 59% in‑house skills gap and help public servants shift from repetitive tasks to oversight, analysis, and citizen care (read the Senate AI bills and explore training options to stay ahead).

“A significant 84% of local organizations report having applied AI in at least one business function. More importantly, results suggest that AI is starting to deliver value to Puerto Rican organizations.” - V2A Consulting, The state of AI in Puerto Rico 2024

Methodology: this list draws only from Puerto Rico–specific reporting and pilots to ensure local relevance: Oversight Board findings on the AI-assisted hiring platform and the broader Civil Service Reform pilot were used to identify which administrative roles are most exposed to automation (see the Oversight Board's hiring platform report and its Civil Service Reform overview), while regional policy actions such as Executive Order 2025‑015 and National Governors Association recognition helped flag roles affected by accelerating modernization and procurement changes; practical use cases and operational examples - chatbots reducing municipal wait times and tools for Do Not Call compliance - were drawn from Nucamp's government AI resources to map likely on‑the‑job substitutions and reskilling targets.

Priority signals included measurable pilot outcomes (339 hires in seven months, average time‑to‑fill about two months with some positions closed in as little as 13 days), HR survey results on agility and candidate quality, and agency lists from the CSR pilot; those data points determined which municipal clerks, 311 agents, paralegals, communications editors, and accounting clerks appear most at risk and where targeted training will have the fastest impact.

“Civil service is not merely trying to change the compensation processes, but also the recruitment processes, learning processes, evaluation and development of employees and organizational design. It is a comprehensive reform.” - Arnaldo Cruz, Deputy Executive Director of the Oversight Board

Municipal administrative clerks who manage permitting counters, land records, and routine filings face some of the clearest near‑term exposure to AI in Puerto Rico: V2A's 2024 survey shows 84% of local organizations have adopted AI and service operations - where chatbots and automation live - is a top adopter, so tools that ingest forms, auto‑index records, and answer routine resident questions are already practical (see V2A Consulting state of AI in Puerto Rico 2024 report).

Machine‑learning data‑capture platforms can extract text from scanned permits, blueprints, and handwritten notes and push them into workflows far faster than manual entry, freeing clerks to focus on exceptions and public service rather than keystrokes (read about machine-learning data-capture platforms).

Meanwhile municipal platforms like ClerkMinutes and AI‑enabled payment/chatbot services are streamlining license payments, minutes, and 24/7 citizen support - reducing queues and after‑hours frustration.

That said, 59% of local organizations cite a lack of in‑house expertise, so targeted reskilling - training clerks to validate models, audit outputs, and manage exceptions - turns a displacement risk into a route to higher‑value oversight and faster, friendlier city services.

“A significant 84% of local organizations report having applied AI in at least one business function. More importantly, results suggest that AI is starting to deliver value to Puerto Rican organizations.” - V2A Consulting, The state of AI in Puerto Rico 2024

Puerto Rico's 311 operators and benefits‑office hotlines are a prime example of where AI can speed service without erasing jobs: AI agents can take first contact across phone, text, apps and social media, classify requests, extract location and case details, and route tickets to the right crew or program - think a storm damage report auto‑created, prioritized, and sent to crews in minutes instead of hours - delivering the faster, data‑driven responses Curated Analytics outlines for 311 systems (AI agents for 311 systems).

But experience shows the best outcome for Puerto Rico will be hybrid teams where automation handles volume and humans handle nuance: AI trims wait times and flags trends, while trained agents step in for complex benefits appeals, language‑sensitive cases, or when empathy matters (see the CMSWire guide on human‑AI collaboration).

Practical steps for agencies include clear escalation paths, multilingual training data, and upskilling reps to use AI as a real‑time assistant - paired with tested tools like 24/7 municipal chatbots that reduce queues and free staff for higher‑value work (24/7 municipal chatbots for citizen support).

“AI is most effective when human agents can use it as a ‘sixth sense' or as an ‘angel on the shoulder.'” - Daniel Lawson, Verizon Business (CustomerExperienceDive)

Paralegals and legal assistants at the Puerto Rico Department of Justice and in the island's courts are already seeing the parts of their day most ripe for automation - document review, e‑discovery triage, and first‑draft research - but the practical lesson from legal tech reporting is clear: speed without safeguards is risky.

AI systems can surface relevant cases in minutes and summarize voluminous files, so DOJ teams that learn to use tools rather than be used by them gain time for complex analysis, client care, and courtroom prep; Callidus' look at integrating AI into paralegal workflows explains how platforms augment discovery and drafting, while Brightflag's primer shows how secure, purpose‑built systems free paralegals from invoice and data wrangling so they can act as quality controllers and process engineers (see Callidus' guide on paralegal workflows and Brightflag's resources on AI for paralegals).

The memorable downside is real - hallucinated or fabricated citations have already reached courts elsewhere - so Puerto Rico's legal staff must prioritize verification, confidentiality, and prompt‑engineering skills.

In short, the DOJ's near‑term playbook is less about replacement and more about reskilling: supervise AI outputs, document AI use for ethics and courts, and move into roles that catch errors, interpret results, and translate AI insights into defensible legal work.

“A human (paralegal) interface with AI will be essential for the foreseeable future.”

Communications editors and proofreaders at the Puerto Rico Department of Education are on the front line where generative AI meets public trust: tools already help brainstorm headlines, draft newsletters, translate materials for Spanish‑dominant communities, and churn social posts faster than ever, but Education Week's field report shows a little more than 90% of school PR pros use AI while most districts lack formal policies or training - 69% have no AI policy and 64% received no ethical‑use training - so speed can easily outpace safeguards (see the Education Week report on school communications).

Classroom research reinforces the warning: in “Challenging AI in the PR Classroom” students evaluating an AI‑assisted news release found it often failed AP style and missed important editorial elements like clear contacts and inclusive representation, which is a red flag for any island press office that must defend accuracy and equity.

Practical steps for DoE teams are clear from PR trade guidance: build district policies, require verification checklists, teach prompt engineering and source‑checking, and frame AI as an assistant for idea generation and multilingual triage - tools that free editors to add the human voice, context, and ethical judgment that machines cannot replicate (see the PR Daily guide to AI and ed‑tech PR).

“At NSPRA, we believe that AI can be a powerful support for school communicators, but it cannot replace the strategy, relationships, and human voice that define effective school PR.” - Barbara M. Hunter, Executive Director, NSPRA

Accounting clerks and bookkeepers at Hacienda and AAFAF sit squarely in the fast lane of automation: hyperautomation can extract data from hundreds of vendor PDFs, accelerate accounts payable entry, match thousands of bank transactions, and generate recurring reports and dashboards so reconciliations that once took days can largely run overnight - leaving human staff to focus on the exception work that really matters (Forvis Mazars lays out these exact use cases for public finance: accounts payable, bank reconciliations, tax‑receipt recording, and report automation).

Puerto Rico's Civil Service Reform already tested these ideas in Hacienda - piloting skills‑based hiring and reclassification in accounting and finance - so the island has a policy foothold to pair tech with reskilling (see the Oversight Board's Civil Service Reform overview).

The clear on‑the‑job shift is practical: learn to audit automated matches, triage unmatched transactions, document exceptions for auditors, and run the dashboards that inform managers - turning what feels like a job loss threat into a chance to move from keystrokes to quality control and financial oversight, with a handful of flagged exceptions becoming the most valuable work each month.

“We have collaborated with the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico in developing the pilot project that began at the Puerto Rico Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget. Our objective is to keep the valuable personnel we have and, at the same time, attract new talent to public service in Puerto Rico.” - Lcda. Zahira A. Maldonado Molina, Former OATRH Director

Puerto Rico's next practical step is clear: pair strong, human‑centered policy with fast, accessible reskilling so frontline workers move from repetitive tasks into verification, oversight, and citizen engagement; start by adopting the Puerto Rico Department of Education's AI policy framings for human‑in‑the‑loop governance and privacy safeguards (see the Puerto Rico Department of Education AI Policy Guidance), expand islandwide digital literacy and navigator programs, and launch targeted cohorts - for example the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - that teach prompt writing, tool validation, and practical AI use for clerks, 311 agents, paralegals, communicators, and accounting staff; couple training with clear procurement rules and pilot evaluation (the Legislature and agencies are already testing classroom and procurement pilots, including a 25‑school AI English instruction pilot), require documented human review of outputs, and fund multilingual, equity‑focused curricula so gains reach every municipality.

A focused mix of policy, pilots, and paid reskilling turns a looming displacement risk into an islandwide productivity surge that preserves public trust while speeding services.

“Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that, if implemented effectively, can help close educational gaps and open new doors for our students.” - Rep. Tatiana Pérez‑Ramírez (News is my Business)