How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Legal Landscape

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October 20, 2023

Artificial intelligence, commonly referred to by the acronym of AI, is significantly altering the legal landscape.  Though most people don’t associate AI with legal work, the truth is this society-changing technology is dramatically altering how legal work is performed.  A legal team that takes full advantage of AI technology for law firms maximizes the efficiency of remote document management, case lifecycles, client data management and so much more.

AI in the Context of Legal Work

Law firms are using AI for reviewing legal documents yet this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the technology’s potential utility.  AI is also used for legal research purposes both before and during cases.  The technology facilitates the challenge of sifting through significant amounts of paperwork, ensuring documents that have specific keywords are prioritized over others.

Legal professionals are also using AI to better understand how to advise clients, calculate risk and even analyze contracts with the utmost efficiency.  There is the potential for AI to advance to the point that it facilitates processing contracts, attorney comments and prevents errors that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.  AI has become efficient to the point that it conducts legal research significantly faster than attorneys.  This technology empowers legal practitioners to fortify their arguments faster and better than many would have previously thought possible, ultimately facilitating the quest to serve justice.

AI’s Predictive Component

AI has advanced to the point that it is now used by attorneys to determine the likelihood of legal teams winning or losing cases.  The technology analyzes case information and compares it to that of similar cases and legal proceedings, providing an estimation of whether the case is likely to result in a beneficial outcome.  

Attorneys use this information to gauge the probability of a prospective case outcome to determine if it is worth taking on.  After all, law firms are businesses with a focus on profit, meaning some cases are simply not worth the effort.

Document Review, Research, and More

Above all, AI and data security powered by tech advances make it easier for a virtual law practice to serve clients with an elevated level of cybersecurity.  After all, practicing law requires the ongoing management of paperwork to the point that it has the potential to stifle operations.  Enter AI.  AI sorts through digital files, organizing them and also scanning them for important information.  

AI has even extended to eDiscovery algorithms that analyze how law firms review documents, zeroing in on specific information as selected by attorneys.  In short, AI makes the discovery and document review processes faster and more affordable.  

Add in the act that AI boosts conventional legal search methods and there is even more reason for law firms to implement it.  AI tailors legal research and search results to attorneys’ desires based on nuanced inputs, highlighting relevant cases in a fraction of the time it would take for a human to do the same.