Somewhere right now, an employer is staring at a ChatGPT subscription window instead of a job posting, wondering if he just found his new office manager for $20 a month.
We get the appeal. We also think it’s the wrong question, and after pulling real placement data from our own clerical recruiting desk, we can show you why.
The Fear Isn’t New, Just The Villain
Every generation gets a version of this panic.
The typewriter changed the secretary’s job. Word processing changed it again. Email, spreadsheets, scheduling software and automation kept chipping away at the repetitive parts.
Administrative work didn’t disappear. The work that remained became more dependent on judgment, context and knowing how the business actually operates.
AI is doing the same thing, only faster. It evolved from “type this” to “decide this.”
What The National Data Says…
The national picture is complicated.
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics projections show that employment for secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to decline 2% from 2025 to 2035. Medical secretaries are the exception, with employment projected to grow 5% over the same period. Legal secretaries and other administrative roles are expected to decline.
That doesn’t mean employers have stopped needing administrative staff. In fact, the BLS projects roughly 314,400 openings for secretaries and administrative assistants each year over the next decade, largely because people leave these occupations or retire.
The shift is real. Technology, automation and AI are changing how much of the traditional administrative workload needs to be done by a person.
But a shrinking occupation isn’t the same thing as “you don’t need to hire for this role anymore.”
It means the job is changing.
And that’s where the national numbers stop telling the whole story. Because what happens across the U.S. doesn’t necessarily tell you what’s happening in a Maine or New Hampshire office.
That’s where our own recruiting data gets interesting.
…Versus What We’re Seeing Across Our Desks
National headlines can’t tell you everything, because they’re not looking at our specific labor market.
Maine and New Hampshire companies are still hiring administrative staff. In 2025, Bonney recruiters filled 87 office and clerical roles for employers. And in 2026, we’re on track to surpass that number.
That represents steady demand across a wide range of office and clerical jobs: administrative assistants, front desk administrative assistants, receptionists, office assistants, office administrators, accounting assistants, customer service representatives, data entry specialists, and more.
Our local hiring data tells a different story than the national decline might suggest.
Why The Job Is Changing, Not Vanishing
AI is getting very good at the work that used to fill much of an administrative employee’s day. That’s a good thing.
Scheduling back-and-forth, first-draft emails, data entry, research, meeting notes and even some creative tasks can now be handled faster with AI tools.
Nobody is nostalgic for retyping the same meeting invite four times because someone’s calendar changed.
The Administrative Skills That Matter More Now
| AI Can… | Your Business Still Needs Someone To… |
|---|---|
| Analyze data | Decide what matters to the business and what action to take |
| Summarize a meeting | Make sure the right people follow through |
| Draft an email | Know the relationship, history and stakes behind the message |
| Schedule a meeting | Understand which priorities should take precedence |
| Flag an unusual number | Know when an anomaly is actually a problem worth escalating |
| Research a vendor | Weigh the information against your company’s actual needs |
| Answer routine questions | Recognize when a situation falls outside the routine |
| Generate a recommendation | Exercise judgment when the recommendation has consequences |
The differentiator isn’t whether AI can perform the task. In many cases, it can. It’s whether someone understands the context, makes the call when the answer isn’t obvious, and takes responsibility for what happens next.
That’s the shift: administrative hiring is moving from “can you do the task” to “can you own the outcome.”
So — Should You Still Hire Administrative Staff?
If you’re looking at an administrative role and wondering whether AI can handle some or all of it, that’s a fair question.
In some cases, the answer may be yes. If a role is mostly repetitive data entry, routine scheduling, basic research or other predictable tasks, AI and automation can take a lot of that work off someone’s plate.
But before you eliminate the role entirely, look at what happens when the work stops being predictable.
- Who handles the customer who needs something that falls outside the usual process?
- Who notices when the information coming out of a system doesn’t make sense?
- Who decides which of five competing requests needs attention first?
- Who knows that a vendor’s “small issue” is actually the third problem they’ve had this month?
Those are the moments when an administrative role becomes less about completing tasks and more about keeping the business moving.
That’s why the employers we’re working with aren’t necessarily choosing between AI and administrative staff. They’re figuring out how to use both.
That can also mean rethinking how you hire. For employers who aren’t sure they need a permanent administrative position, temp-to-hire staffing for clerical roles can provide a way to evaluate the fit before making a long-term commitment.
The question isn’t whether AI can do the job.
It’s whether you’ve designed the job around the things AI does well, the things your team still needs a person to own, and the combination that makes the most sense for your business.
What Should You Hire For Now?
If AI is handling more of the repetitive work, the administrative employee you hire today may need to bring a different set of strengths to the role.
- Judgment: Can they prioritize when everything feels urgent? Can they make a reasonable call without needing every decision handed to them?
- Context: Can they understand how their work affects customers, vendors, coworkers and the rest of the business?
- Communication: Can they handle a frustrated customer, busy executive or confused vendor without escalating every interaction?
- AI Fluency: Are they comfortable using AI tools to work faster, organize information and handle routine tasks?
- Ownership: When something goes sideways, do they figure out what needs to happen next, or wait for someone to tell them?
The best administrative hire for your team may not be the person who can complete the most tasks the fastest.
It may be the person who knows which tasks matter, which ones can be automated and what needs a human decision.
What This Means for Employers
The tools will keep changing. So will the administrative work around them. Before you change the role, get clear on what actually needs to get done.
Ask yourself:
- What percentage of this job is repetitive task execution?
- What happens when the work doesn’t go according to plan?
- Who handles the exceptions?
- Who owns the relationships involved?
- Who catches problems the system doesn’t know are problems?
- What would happen if those responsibilities simply stopped getting done?
If most of the job can be automated, AI may change the role significantly.
If the job depends on judgment, relationships, context and ownership, you’re probably not deciding whether to hire an administrative employee. You’re deciding what you want that employee to be responsible for.
Curious what this looks like for your team? Talk to a Bonney recruiter about your administrative hiring needs.
Administrative Hiring FAQs
Are administrative roles disappearing?
Nationally, employment in the secretarial and administrative assistant category is projected to decline over the next decade. At the same time, the BLS projects hundreds of thousands of openings each year as workers retire or leave these occupations. Locally in Maine and New Hampshire, we’re still seeing steady demand.
Should I use AI instead of hiring an administrative assistant?
For repetitive work such as scheduling, data entry, basic research and first-draft emails, AI tools can reduce the amount of work a person needs to handle. But administrative roles often include responsibilities that require context, communication, judgment and follow-through. Many employers we work with are using AI to handle more routine work while continuing to hire people to own the work that surrounds it.
What should I look for when hiring administrative staff now?
Look beyond pure task speed. Administrative employees increasingly need to be comfortable using AI tools while also being able to prioritize, communicate, recognize exceptions and take ownership when something doesn’t go according to plan.
How can administrative assistants use AI at work?
Administrative professionals can use AI for many of the repetitive parts of the job, including drafting first-pass emails, summarizing meeting notes, scheduling, basic research and organizing information. The goal isn’t to compete with the technology. It’s to use it to spend less time on routine work and more time on the responsibilities that require context, judgment and human interaction.
What administrative roles are employers still hiring for?
Bonney continues to see staffing demand for a range of office and clerical roles, including administrative assistants, receptionists, office assistants, office administrators, accounting assistants, customer service representatives and data entry specialists. The specific roles employers need vary by industry, company size and workload.
