Artificial Intelligence for the Legal Sector
The legal industry has witnessed significant changes prompted by factors like technological advances to meet client demands in the recent past. In particular, more law firms are leveraging the value of smart AI technologies to manage critical tasks. Also, data volumes continue expanding unabatedly, requiring law firms to utilize autonomous technologies to automate storage, filing, management.
Experts estimate that law firms will use AI to speed up contract review processes by 20-90% by 2026. In addition, a recent report forecasts that the global AI legal technology will generate more than $37.8 billion 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 law technologies 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 law tech can enable lawyers to work more efficiently and collaborate more with other specialists.
How Law Firms can Leverage Artificial Intelligence
1. Administration and compliance: AI technologies permit 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 acquiring new clients and strategic planning.
2. Managing contracts: Creating and reviewing contracts is a time-consuming but essential task for all law firms. Thus, it requires robust contract management software and systems. Fortunately, AI can automate efficient drafting, reviewing, and organization of contracts. Besides, AI platforms collect data to build a knowledge base that can provide lawyers with in-depth insights to predict the behavior of negotiating parties.
3. Legal research: Legal research is crucial to preparing for court cases, but it is tiresome and time-consuming. Luckily, attorneys can leverage AI algorithms to review case files accurately and quickly and tailor search results to minimize the documentation required to be reviewed. A focused and refined research process means spending less time examining irrelevant law cases and more time analyzing high-value documents.
4. Conducting due diligence: Lawyers must provide their clients with unquestionable, evidence-based advice to ensure the best outcomes. However, 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 artificial intelligence, 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.
5. Predicting case outcomes: Predicting possible litigation outcomes can help lawyers answer their clients’ pressing questions, such as shall we win if the case goes to trial? Should we accept a settlement? This is through analyzing vast data volumes of similar case outcomes and judicial rulings.