While some professions are threatened to be replaced by AI, for the legal industry, AI can actually be a tool that makes lawyers’ jobs easier

Artificial intelligence is one of the most anticipated and fast-developing technological advancements in recent years. It simulates human intelligence and decision-making by allowing computers to look for patterns in data, evaluate them, and find results based on these. In the workplace, it has significantly changed the way industries carry out their processes as AI systems have started to do work that humans used to do before, delivering results faster and more accurate.

The legal profession, traditionally slow to adapt or consider technological advancements for the industry to take advantage of, is starting to acknowledge the presence of AI in many industries and the possibility of it also penetrating the profession. The impact that AI may bring to the legal industry will certainly change the system, and everyone involved is now taking sides in the debate.

For some, AI is the catalyst that will bring about the end of human presence in the profession. They will start to replace humans in certain tasks, then this will escalate to the point that the AI system will already be capable of carrying out everything that a human is currently accomplishing, thus replacing them in the industry. This may very well be the fruition of the words of Doc Brown from the film Back to the Future II: “The justice system works swiftly in the future now that they’ve abolished all lawyers.”

There are those, however, that believe in the potential of AI, not as a replacement for human legal practitioners, but as a complement and a helping hand for the heavy workload. AI systems can carry over the task of researching, compiling, and transcribing documents for lawyers, while the professionals themselves can focus on one of the most pivotal aspects of their practice: the human aspect, which AI systems cannot replicate.

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In this possibility, lawyers will still play key roles in the profession, since they will oversee and develop the AI system until such time that the system is already capable of standing on itself and process the kind of work that the legal profession needs them to process at any given time. Simultaneously, they will still deliver legal services through the traditional platforms and carry out legal proceedings.

To learn more about how AI will impact the industry when it has been implemented, check out this infographic by Law in Order:

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

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The post [Infographic] No threat to the legal profession, AI is expected to help lawyers in discovery and case management appeared first on e27.