Legal work is continually evolving due to the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence, but society has not even begun to reach the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the technological advancements that have the potential to transform the legal profession in the long term. term.
That’s the sentiment shared by Richard Susskind, a UK-based professor and globally recognized authority on AI, who took part in a webinar on Friday hosted by alternative legal services provider UnitedLex, which discussed the transformation to be made in years to come due to the ever-increasing use of AI in professional environments.
Susskind, who served for 25 years as technology adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and was this year appointed special envoy for justice and AI to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, said it was a mistake to consider AI to have reached its peak. On the contrary, continued evolution is inevitable.
“There is more need for legal services. The question is how will that need be met?” Susskind said. “AI will enable clients to undertake much of the (legal) work themselves.”
AI is likely to develop to such a degree that many tasks that previously required human professional services – and that includes the legal sector – are expected to soon be undertaken by AI systems.
In practice, this means organizations will see a growing need to develop new types of systems to accommodate change, he said, not ignore it.
Susskind warned against the myopia of assessing AI’s potential based on current technology, saying significant progress is expected to continue in the coming years and that organizations must be prepared to continually adapt , for fear of being left behind.
Susskind said society must prepare for the possibility of transformative AI technologies that have yet to be developed, as the most powerful AI systems could still be a few years away.
Susskind stressed that law schools should better prepare aspiring lawyers to work in a legal field that will undoubtedly be transformed by AI in the years to come. Law students should not be educated with the assumption that the legal industry will be the same in 20 years as it is today, he said.
“My fear is that we are training them to be 20th century lawyers,” he said.
AI is expected to be a “giant leap” in helping to increase access to justice, particularly for litigants of lesser means and average individuals who need legal assistance in areas such as law landlord-tenant and tax law, and “putting more lawyers on the problem.” is not always the best solution.
“It can be rightly said that the conventional system is broken,” he said.
The most powerful AI systems will be those capable of providing clients with results similar to those offered by human professionals, he said.
“It’s not just going to be a question of what do lawyers do, how do they do it and how can we replicate this situation,” he said.
Susskind compared AI in the legal profession to robotic technologies in medicine. Robots, he said, have been an extremely beneficial tool in helping doctors perform surgeries, but medical procedures still require human contact. A similar sentiment might be shared about the legal profession.
“It’s about organizations leveraging AI to accomplish tasks,” he said.
Susskind said he believes most long-term predictions regarding AI in the legal field are “mostly underestimated” because the impact would likely be even greater than currently envisioned.