The New York Times reports that despite the “impressive advances in artificial intelligence technology tailored for legal work,” both research and those working on the software say AIs will be adopted in “a slow, task-by-task process.” While “natural language processing has proved useful in scanning and predicting what documents will be relevant to a case,” so far “advising clients, writing legal briefs, negotiating and appearing in court” are beyond computerization. Legal experts predict “technology will unbundle aspects of legal work over the next decade or two,” ending with “highly paid lawyers” working “on the upper rungs of the legal task ladder,” with other legal services performed by nonlawyers or technology. Already, many corporate clients’ refusal “to pay high hourly rates to law firms for junior lawyers to do routine work” has led to such tasks being automated and outsourced.
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
