EXPOSED
The core task — converting speech to accurate text in real time — is exactly what automatic speech recognition now does at usable quality, including live captioning of broadcasts and meetings, which is the tier collapsing fastest. What holds the occupation up is regulatory: many states require a certified shorthand reporter or licensed notary to administer oaths, certify the official transcript, and be personally accountable for its accuracy in a deposition or courtroom, and 'digital reporting' with a human monitor is already the cost-cutting compromise. Expect the job to contract toward certified legal reporting and away from captioning, with pay pressure as ASR-plus-editor becomes the default workflow.
Core tasks are already automatable. Verbatim capture of spoken proceedings, timestamping, and rough-draft turnaround are now done end-to-end by ASR engines that outperform stenographers on multi-speaker broadcast feeds at a fraction of the cost, and even readback and speaker identification are increasingly handled by diarization plus an audio scrub, which is why this sits at 4 rather than mid-band — the residual human work is proofreading a machine draft, not producing the record.
Some physical or field component. A 5 reflects that you physically show up: hauling and setting the steno machine, tripod mics, and backup recorders into courtrooms, hotel conference rooms, hospital bedsides for medical depositions, and occasionally site inspections, but the environment is climate-controlled and the work is done seated at a keyboard, so there is nothing hands-on that a technician couldn't replicate.
Licensed human required and personally liable. The 12 is carried by state licensure — CSR or RPR registration in California, Texas, and roughly two dozen other states, notary authority to administer the oath under Rule 30(b), and your personal certificate on the transcript that makes you the one deposed if accuracy is challenged — but it stops well short of 20 because captioning work requires no licence at all and states have been actively authorizing digital reporting with an unlicensed monitor to fill vacancies.
Some relationship component. A 7 recognizes that firms and litigators rebook the reporter who delivers clean rough drafts overnight, catches unclear speech before the record closes, and handles read-and-sign without drama, but the client relationship belongs to the agency that schedules you, the deponent never chose you, and a substitute reporter on short notice is routine — the transcript, not the rapport, is what gets paid for.
Executes defined procedures on defined inputs. At 6, your discretion is real but tightly bounded: deciding when to interrupt for a clarification, how to mark an inaudible or a stipulation, applying the transcript format rules of the jurisdiction and the accepted punctuation conventions — all procedural calls with written guidance behind them, not ambiguous decisions where you own the outcome.
Has AI actually changed your work?