Artificial intelligence is transforming the legal industry at a rapid pace. While AI will not outright replace lawyers, it can assist them in their work.
Using AI will change how lawyers work, so they should not see this as merely an additional tool in their belt. According to industry experts www.brightflag.com legal firms that have not already started to think about how best to benefit from the new technological advancements being offered by AI risk being left behind.
How is AI beneficial for the legal industry?
Here are just a few of the ways that AI is transforming legal services.
Research
AI is becoming an essential tool in speeding up and simplifying document review and discovery. Analysing case documents can be extremely time-consuming for lawyers and paralegals and clerks. Just about every legal drama these days shows a lorry load of documents for review and this sheer volume of documentation can add a huge amount of time and cost to even the most simple legal case. AI which can scroll through those documents for keywords, phrases and ideas has the potential to bring this part of legal inflation back under control and improve the legal process for all those involved.
Chatbots
As well as simplifying and automating the research process, artificial intelligence can help lawyers by improving client experience via chatbots. While this technology is not new, the experience is improving in leaps and bounds. By leveraging the power of AI, chatbots are increasingly providing an improved level of service compared to their human counterparts. For example, they are relentlessly cheerful and never suffer quite literally from ‘human error’, which means clients are more likely to feel welcome and responses always follow the most logical route. But of course, sometimes things are more complicated and so it still pays to have a ‘human’ option for all AI driven services. As AI improves that option is becoming narrower and narrower.
Contract drafting
AI can take the pain out of contract drafting for both lawyers and clients. By asking a series of questions and drawing on the catalogue of solutions, AI cuts down on the endless back and forth that is so often central to the contract drafting process.
Litigation prediction
AI using machine learning is beginning to be used in litigation prediction. AI can crunch through vast arrays of data to make more accurate predictions about likely outcomes. It does this by using data about the facts of the case and also external factors, including past case law and the people and process involved. This not only helps lawyers and their clients to make more realistic judgments about the merits of a potential case, it also increases the likelihood of early settlements or compromise.
Due diligence
AI is speeding up the process of due diligence, that is checking background facts and bona fides of bodies or individuals involved in a legal process or situation. Due diligence is an essential but time consuming and tedious process
How is AI transforming the legal industry?
Some lawyers might fear that using such AI assistants will take away their job, but this is not the case—they should simply consider these tools as complements to their existing skills. By speeding up and automating the research and customer service process, AI will free up legal professionals to focus on the more interesting parts of their job.
AI legal services should also over time make legal services cheaper and therefore more accessible to a wider range of people. At a time when vast numbers of people are effectively priced out of the possibility of legal support, this is an incredibly important point.
Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions) and self-correction.
Artificial intelligence can refer to a smart machine, although it typically refers to a machine that mimics ‘cognitive’ functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning and problem-solving. The legal industry is being transformed by several aspects of artificial intelligence. This includes software that can analyze documents and find information relevant to your case, which could make it far easier for lawyers to do their job. Also, chatbots are becoming more advanced, meaning they can communicate in a more natural way with people—helping to handle simple research questions or requests for information at the same time as keeping clients happy too.
Finally, the increase in the use of big data means that there’s far greater scope for analyzing what happens within cases—not just making sure everything is done correctly but also finding new trends, insights, and other useful information. They might not be used for solving cases just yet, but artificial intelligence is definitely having an impact on the legal sector.
Are these services popular?
These services are undoubtedly popular, especially among younger people, who are more comfortable using technology in their daily lives. For example, roughly two-thirds of 18-to-24-year olds said they would use chatbots for tasks like obtaining information about products or services—compared to roughly half of those aged 65 and older. This is just one indication that AI-powered services will become more widespread over time—and lawyers should be aware that clients will start to expect this type of thing from them too. Another useful metric is how quickly these bots became widely used across other industries, such as retail and banking—indicating a trend towards automation and artificial intelligence in general.