Artificial intelligence for the legal sector
Conor Marken, sales director at Cloud Geeni, details the numerous ways in which artificial intelligence could benefit legal businesses.
The legal industry has witnessed significant changes prompted by factors like client-focused technological advances in the recent past. In particular, more law firms are leveraging the value of smart artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to manage critical tasks. And as data volumes continue expanding unabatedly, law firms are having to use autonomous technologies to automate data storage, filing and management.
Experts estimate that law firms will use AI to speed up contract review processes by up to 90% by 2026. In addition, a recent report forecasts that AI will generate more than $37.8 billion globally by 2026, an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 36%.
AI legal tech is transforming how law firms operate
The University of Oxford’s 2021 research found that lawyers are more likely to engage multidisciplinary teams and process specialists if they use AI than lawyers who use traditional technology. Historically, employers have focused more on lawyers’ skills and knowledge of various software packages. However, there is a noticeable paradigm shift towards lawyers’ skillsets in data analytics, project automation, and innovation techniques. Ultimately, AI-powered legal tech can enable lawyers to work more efficiently and collaborate more with other specialists.
How law firms can leverage AI
- Administration and compliance: AI permits law firms to accurately address challenging processes like recording and billing time. Also, smart AI tools can help automate payments, maintain up-to-date records in minutes, reduce overheads, and enhance efficiency. Additionally, AI can automate low-level, repetitive tasks and streamline processes, allowing attorneys to focus on strategic planning and acquiring new clients.
- Managing contracts: Creating and reviewing contracts is a time-consuming but essential task for all law firms. It requires robust contract management software and systems – AI can automate efficient drafting, reviewing, and organisation of contracts, and AI platforms collect data to build a knowledge base that can provide lawyers with in-depth insights to predict the behavior of negotiating parties.
- Legal research: Legal research is crucial to preparing for court cases, but it is tiresome and time consuming. Attorneys can leverage AI algorithms to review case files accurately and quickly, and tailor search results to minimise the documentation required to be reviewed. A focused and refined research process means spending less time examining irrelevant law cases and more time analysing high-value documents.
- Conducting due diligence: Lawyers must provide their clients with unquestionable, evidence-based advice to ensure the best outcomes. Conducting due diligence is a comprehensive process that involves reviewing numerous documents and communications, and it can take a toll on lawyers, resulting in potential inaccuracies and errors. With AI, lawyers can review communications and documents quickly and reduce the risk of errors. An AI solution can sift through thousands of documents, verify facts, and highlight key findings within minutes.
- Predicting case outcomes: Predicting possible litigation outcomes can help lawyers answer their clients’ pressing questions, such as – would we win if the case goes to trial? Should we accept a settlement? This is by analysing vast data volumes of similar case outcomes and judicial rulings.
