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legal sector and its time-intensive processes. In fact, AI software in the legal industry is predicted to grow from $0.94 billion in 2023 to $3.29 billion by 2028.
Legal professionals who want to remain relevant and modern must stay abreast of the newest AI developments, or they will find themselves quickly left behind from the competition. Lawyers, clerks, legal advisors and paralegals must learn how to leverage AI’s benefits while addressing its challenges. However, as with most industries, there are concerns that legal professionals don’t know how to properly use AI or understand its complex algorithms.
Read on to find out how AI is being used in the legal sector.
Read: Navigating the Pros and Cons of AI
How Can AI Enhance Legal Work?
AI has numerous benefits in the legal sector, as it can comb through massive piles of data that would typically take weeks or even months to accomplish. Its biggest advantage is that it can automate time-consuming and repetitive routine tasks, streamline workflows and generate ideas, including:
- Legal research and analysis
- Document analysis, management and automation (letters, agreements, motions, bills, invoices)
- Billing
- Patent and trademark application
- Draft, analyze and review contracts and motions
- Write legal summaries
- Due diligence and discovery
All of these can increase efficiency and productivity while saving time, allowing lawyers to focus on complicated issues or their clients. Reshaping and enhancing the relationship between legal professionals and clients is another benefit; these relationships are all about mutual trust, so lawyers who provide client-centered experiences can beat the competition and build a strong reputation. 
Freeing up time can also save clients from paying exorbitant legal fees, making legal services more affordable and accessible to lower-income people or companies. This, in turn, can help level the playing field within the justice system.
Another benefit is that AI can predict case outcomes, which helps lawyers determine which strategies to use, what legal advice to offer or which experts to use. AI can also speed up decision-making by identifying trends and patterns and providing case insights, and it can inform attorneys of compliance regulations and determine the litigation’s viability.
AI Concerns
Although AI has many benefits, there are also some concerns. AI is difficult to understand, especially with how and why it comes to its conclusions. This makes it hard for lawyers to inform their clients with clear information.
AI can also hallucinate or create information that looks real and correct but in actuality, it isn’t. This can create errors and has the potential to damage a client’s case. There was a case recently where a lawyer used ChatGPT for a legal brief, but the AI tool made up information about fake court cases, leading to the lawyer being sanctioned.
Since AI doesn’t possess human emotions, it can struggle to understand the client’s wishes or demands. It also can’t offer the level of sympathy and compassion, problem-solving skills and legal creativity a lawyer needs, and it can’t weigh the factors that go into making strategic legal decisions. AI can’t argue before a jury or cross-examine witnesses.
With any industry experiencing AI changes, a big concern is job loss. AI is also subject to many biases and discrimination in its learning, and there are concerns for client confidentiality and data protection. Though we noted it as a positive, AI saving time can be an issue for legal departments, as they often bill clients by the hour.
How Should Law Firms Implement AI?
Although some are asking if AI will eventually replace lawyers, AI can’t replicate what human lawyers can currently accomplish. AI should be used as a tool, not a replacement for lawyers. Striking the balance between technological advancements and helping clients is necessary for law firms moving forward.
Law firms should implement data privacy and security measures to protect clients’ privacy and sensitive information. They can also train and educate staff on how to use AI tools that can help legal professionals complete their work quickly and with fewer errors, including:
- ChatGPT: ChatGPT can help draft contracts and other legal documents. ChatGPT recently took the bar and passed in the 90th percentile.
- Westlaw and LexisNexis: Both are case law databases that can be used for legal research.
- Quick Check: Westlaw also has Quick Check, which can analyze legal briefs and identify any weaknesses.
- Lawgeez: This tool uses AI to review and prepare legal contracts.
- Harvey: Harvey can help lawyers create legal documents and conduct legal research.
- Co-Counsel: This acts as a legal assistant for lawyers.
- Everlaw: Everlaw is an eDiscovery software that can help filter through thousands of pages of discoverable material.
- Lex Machina: This AI tool can predict the behavior of courts, judges and lawyers.
By teaching staff how to craft prompts and evaluate the accuracy and quality of AI’s results, staff can better identify biases and use the results to advise clients.
Thriveon and AI
Thriveon understands how important AI is to the legal industry. Our fractional CIOs are building policies and strategies on how to implement AI so our clients can leap ahead of the competition. For more information, schedule a meeting with our staff today.