AI Awareness and Conditional Legal Career Confidence in Bangladesh

Awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) in legal work does not necessarily imply that respondents regard AI literacy as an employment requirement or attribute career confidence to their ability to use it responsibly. This cross-sectional study separates these judgements using 385 adult responses to a common questionnaire in Bangladesh. We report item distributions, joint endorsement and within-person contrasts, then estimate exploratory adjusted associations with conditional career confidence and intention to develop AI skills. Self-reported understanding of legal AI capabilities and limitations was endorsed by 277 respondents (71.9%), while 154 (40.0%) endorsed the growing importance of AI literacy for legal employment. The paired difference was 31.9 percentage points (95% CI 25.5 to 38.4; Holm-adjusted p < 0.001). Confidence attributed to responsible AI use was endorsed by 171 respondents (44.4%), and 71 (18.4%) endorsed both that statement and employment relevance. In adjusted models, the coefficient for legal AI awareness in relation to conditional confidence was 0.071 (95% CI −0.081 to 0.222); none of the four focal coefficients met the multiplicity-adjusted threshold. The findings distinguish familiarity with the capabilities and risks of AI from the career value respondents assign to that familiarity. They support assessing legal AI competence and career expectations separately in curriculum evaluation. The questionnaire does not measure demonstrated skills, overall employability, labour-market demand or employment outcomes.