Last week, I came across an interesting article in Lawyers Weekly exploring research on the cost-cutting benefits that artificial intelligence is creating for in-house legal teams. With AI being a prominent topic of discussion and tool of use at Attune Legal, naturally I thought I’d create *“article four of a Trilogy in Three Parts.” Here are some interesting points that stuck with me.
In the Lawyers Weekly article, the research report referenced – Gen AI and Future Corporate Legal Work: How Ready Are In-House Teams – was published by the Association of Corporate Council. The fact that they were the publishers tells me that most, if not all, of these findings will also apply to small and medium legal firms. This is because firms of this size will have internal IT (or perhaps that will be AIIT now) support and could benefit greatly from this research.
Here were three key ideas from the article that law firms should be taking note of:
- AI used properly can save you money
This might sound like an obvious insight, but the key word in this sentence is properly. Nobody wants to be the type of lawyer who submits pleadings based on cases that don’t exist. With AI being so available – including to those who don’t know how to use it properly – major errors like this can, and have, actually happened. The answer here is, when using AI technology in your work, make sure to check, double-check, then triple-check all citations and references. The time taken to do this is far less than the time taken to find the case law (or explain yourself to a judge).
2. Skilling in the use of AI is critical.
Learning how and when to use AI is almost as important as knowing when not to use AI. (This also comes with experience). The reality is that AI technologies are not at a stage in their development where they can execute all tasks perfectly without potential for error. If one becomes too reliant on AI, or doesn’t recognise that it is only effective in certain contexts, this is when AI technology can become a foe to you, and the work you produce.
3. Try various AI platforms and find what suits you.
As Yule Guttenbeil discussed in his recent blog on his go-to AI tools, there are a multitude of AI platforms and programs being sold. Some do fantastic research, some write great emails and some can write a scarily good set of pleadings. Some aren’t as advanced, and can be hard to use. My experience using AI technology has taught me that you will end up exploring at least 2-3 three programs to achieve what you are wanting from the technology. No one program does it all (yet). I say yet because it is still early days and AI is improving almost logarithmically.
As you might be able to gather, AI has a long way to go and it promises to be an interesting road. Used well and it can be a great friend. Used the wrong way and it could do more harm than good.
*Apologies to Hitch Hikers Guide for stealing the quote……
If you have any questions about how we use AI in our practice at Attune Legal or would like to discuss this further, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always happy to share our experiences and insights on this exciting development in legal technology. To work with our team, get in touch via our website https://attune.legal/
