Intelligence

Why Legal Firms Need to Embrace Artificial Intelligence to be Future-Ready

 

Artificial intelligence was a fantasy land even for the most technical professionals. People, in general, could only relate it to robots that simulate human intelligence. Its business applications were limited because it was not economically logical for the companies to implement artificial intelligence and get the desired ROI. But now, with the availability of comparatively cheaper connected devices, A.I. and machine learning algorithms can be fed with an enormous amount of relevant data that enable them to learn and perform business functions and predict future outcomes.

In a nutshell, A.I. induces automation i.e. eliminating the need for a human intervention to perform a particular task. And the functions performed by a legal firm are one of the most labor-intensive and repetitive in nature. No surprise, A.I. has found perfect application in the legal industry so much that many experts are talking about “Robot Lawyers” replacing their human counterparts.

A 2016 Deloitte study estimated 114,000 legal jobs will be automated in the next 20 years. The report also points out that technology has already contributed to a reduction of around 31,000 jobs in the sector, such as legal secretaries.

A.I. can more efficiently and swiftly perform the below-mentioned tasks, that are usually limited by human capabilities.

Faster Documentation

Documents are an integral part of any legal process and a legal firm produces hundreds of documents daily. They can range from legal contracts to memos. Producing these documents on a regular basis requires time and money.

Artificial Intelligence can process complex documents in a much shorter time. With artificial intelligence selected templates, the process of developing contracts, legal briefs, memos, letters, compliance documents, etc. can be automated. This allows firms to focus on what clients need at a reduced cost and save time simultaneously.

A leading law firm specializing in intellectual property rights has implemented a document management system for case management, workflow automation, database search, database import/export, conflict checking, etc. 

Predicting the Case Outcomes

Fighting a legal case costs a lot. Thus, before even filing a case, individuals & businesses want to understand what are the chances of winning a case based on the judgments given for similar cases in the past. An artificial intelligence algorithm can learn from the pattern in the text of previous cases’ digital documents, and by comparing it with the text of the case at hand, predict the possible outcome of the case.

A human mind doesn’t have the capability to analyze such a huge amount of data, and even the most experienced lawyers have limited capability to predict the outcome. A law firm providing such predictive artificial intelligence services can easily differentiate itself from the competitors.

Finding Similar Cases

To make a valid argument for the case, lawyers need to do deep legal research of as many cases as they can and comprehend hundreds of pages of decisions given by the courts previously, to construe the right cases that are in favor of their client’s application. Moreover, they need to know the opposing view and the supporting justification as given by the law, so they can prepare a counter-strategy/argument.

An experienced and knowledgeable lawyer is able to point out to the right case, but an artificial intelligence algorithm can do the task much efficiently and quickly, helping the lawyer to focus on other aspects of the case. A legal firm having such a capability will always have an edge over the competitor.

Technology-Assisted Review (TAR) of the Contracts

Legal contracts between entities and people are an important part of any business agreement and reviewing these documents is an ongoing repetitive task performed by lawyers. Though quite a few of these documents are new and need to be reviewed from scratch. Many of them are similar contracts, but still, need to be reviewed by the lawyer just for assurance.

Artificial Intelligence can be utilized to perform due diligence of the contract faster and more accurately. With the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence algorithms can analyze the contracts to identify the issues in the contract after reviewing concepts and clauses specified by a lawyer and produce a summarized report. This could save a lot of money spent on employing many lawyers to review these documents by the legal firm.

Legal Office Management

Some of the administrative functions such as billing, payroll & resource management, and scheduling meetings can be automated by an artificial intelligence algorithm. According to a 2015 study by Accenture, managers spend 54% of their time on administrative/coordination and control tasks.

Artificial Intelligence can determine and choose the most suitable person available for a case and accordingly align other processes, automating the process of resource management, scheduling meetings, and billing.

Legal Bots

Personalized chatbots can provide customized answers to specific queries, like legalities involved in making an investment or filing a divorce. These are available 24×7 and can provide accurate information from authenticated sources.

Conclusion

Implementing new technologies into the business can be challenging initially, but these technologies could bring lucrative opportunities for law firms who are planning for the long term. The use of artificial intelligence in the legal industry has already begun. In the near future, we would see law firms differentiating themselves on AI-based services they are offering. It is imperative for law firms to get into the game quickly and gain from reaching the market early.

Unthinkable has helped ZeusIP, a legal service provider, to develop a Document Management System for automating processes in an amazingly short span of time by utilizing the decoupled reusable technology extensions. We can help you develop comprehensive AI-based chatbots and other solutions quickly to minimize time-to-market.

 

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Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Human Evolution

How to Improve UX with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

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