The legal industry is undergoing major changes and the use of new technology is reshaping the way lawyers work, interact, and share knowledge. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to perform most tasks currently carried out by humans, which has left many legal professionals concerned about their future. Yet AI it is not about replacing lawyers or the expertise they have; it’s about using technology as a tool to optimize workflows and make more efficient use of lawyers’ time and knowledge.
The most obvious benefit of AI is efficiency. AI solutions can significantly enhance eDiscovery and acquisition processes (M & A), as well as increase the quality of the results. In a recent study 20 experienced lawyers were put in competition with AI to evaluate legal contracts most accurately and efficiently. Whereas the lawyers spent 92 minutes on evaluating a contract with 85% accuracy, the AI only used 26 seconds and achieved 94% accuracy. As the results of the study demonstrates, AI solutions can conduct tasks in just a fraction of time, enabling lawyers to spend their time on issues that require legal and human expertise.
The emerging technology solutions can moreover facilitate for knowledge sharing across the organization. Top Norwegian law firm BAHR, who recently partnered with ayfie to implement AI, uses the solution to optimize internal searches and more efficiently identify relevant relationships between documents and contracts from different data systems. They consider digitalization and good technology solutions to be vital for the legal sector.
- "The best law firms take action to make the most of technology, and this is necessary to be preferred by clients and to attract the best people. BAHR sees digitalization as an opportunity to create new working methods and business models,” says CEO of BAHR Leap Elise Johnsen Kirkhus.
By adapting AI solutions and digitizing mundane tasks currently done manually, lawyers’ time is freed up to take on higher-level tasks. This strengthens their abilities to focus on solving advanced legal issues and provide better counsel for their clients.
