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4 Ways AI Can Dominate in Law Firms and Legal Sector


— October 21, 2019

AI-powered legal software has been proven to boost efficiency in analyzing legal documents.


Artificial intelligence is continuing to play an essential role in bringing automation and driving precision in the decision-making process across many industries. Recently, the legal profession has also been subject to AI-based innovations. Some app developers already built future-ready AI tools for lawyers and law firms. This has prompted many industry experts to predict the upcoming AI uses for law firms and the legal industry. 

As per the prediction of Deloitte, by 2036 a whopping 100,000 professional roles in the legal sector will be automated. As their research indicates, the time is ripe for the legal industry and professionals to get ready to embrace AI-driven innovations. As one AI-based venture for the legal profession, PyperAI has already made a start, such innovative ventures will continue to come. 

How AI Works for the Legal Profession

AI is basically computer science mimicking human reasoning for different cognitive actions like learning, perceiving, communicating and decision making. When a computer program can analyze the user behavior and data, gather insights and accordingly make decisions or communicate, the role of human beings is minimized to a great extent. In that respect Machine Learning is also a part of AI, and it deals with the task of training computers to learn from human interactions and behavior and adapt computer interactions accordingly. Deep Learning a part of Machine Learning technology by using advanced algorithms can even perform abstract tasks such as recognizing images.

Humanoid robot; image by Franck V., via Unsplash.com.
Humanoid robot; image by Franck V., via Unsplash.com.

Now coming to the legal profession, AI can literally take care of many repetitive tasks and make things easier. From gathering and processing information in a more precise manner to understanding the data and extracting relevant insights from data to give inputs on legal decision making and research, AI and Machine Learning together can bring the force of automation for many tasks and augment professional accuracy to a great extent. 

Now, let us explain some of the principal ways AI can boost the efficiency and performance in the legal profession. 

Legal Chatbots

The legal community, with their little exposure to the world of technology, had no idea what implications modern computing technology could bring to their profession. This is why when a student from Stanford University, Josh Browder, built the famous “robot lawyer” DoNotPay in 2016, it really came as a surprise to a professional community tat was not even introduced to the “chatbot.” But that was far from symbolic as the new legal Chatbot DoNotPay after its launch appealed more than 160,000 parking tickets from both New York and London. Since then, Chatbots started to create a buzz among legal professionals. 

Some surprising plus factors are favoring Chatbots in the legal industry. First of all, legal chatbots without going to rest or holidays can stay active and responsive and meet an unlimited number of legal queries. Even though they cannot at all surpass the professional competence of the lawyers, with appropriate use, they can really save a lot of time for processing of petitions and background tasks. They can be skilled and tireless helping hands for lawyers and legal firms of the future. 

Reviewing legal documents and legal research

AI-powered legal software has been proven to boost efficiency in analyzing legal documents. Computer programs can review documents independently and can sort out documents based upon relevance and context. This is largely done by training the machine algorithms about the significance of the topic. 

For example, by flagging one document as relevant, you can easily make the machine learn how to apply the same logic for selecting other documents as relevant. This can significantly reduce the workload of legal professionals while boosting efficiency in document processing and research. Since a considerable portion of the legal analysis is spent on preparing documents as per relevance, tools driven by AI and Machine Learning technology can play a significant role. The PyperAI takes it even one step forward by incorporating natural language processing capability for analyzing documents more efficiently.

Lawyers and law firms spend a great deal of time on reviewing contracts for identifying various issues and risk factors and how the contracts and agreements can have negative implications on their clients. They need to review contracts in order to suggest clients favorable terms of negotiation. For such a reviewing process, AI can play a significant role. 

AI-Powered Automation for Faster Legal Services

In recent times, intelligent technologies are playing an excellent role for legal firms in respect of delivering faster and better legal services to their clients. Now, an increasing number of law firms and law enforcement agencies are using AI for reviewing documents, standardizing processes and for a variety of tasks. Though the overall impact of AI is still far from overwhelming, it is already being seen as the promise for the future of the legal profession. 

The “legal process outsourcing” (LPO) model, which has emerged as the outcome of globalization of the legal profession is closely associated with the technological innovations in the legal sector. LPO depending heavily on tech innovations for reducing the cost of the large mass of low-value legal cases is finding AI tools befitting to the objective. The LPO model is already focusing on incorporating automation to reduce the workload created by repetitive tasks, and this has helped to enhance the efficiency of many large law firms. 

Predicting legal results 

Finally, AI is already known to have tremendous predictive capability by analyzing data. In the legal profession, this has terrible significance. AI, by helping law firms to assess the possible legal outcomes based on the data-driven insights, can help them to approach the cases cautiously by taking into consideration a lot of aspects from very early on. 

Conclusion 

It is quite apparent now that AI will continue to transform the legal profession in the years to come. The faster law firms can adapt to this growing trend of hi-tech innovations, the better professional efficiency they can expect.

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