AI to create new roles for human lawyers

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In what ways will AI impact the legal profession? For many years, there have been growing concerns that the increasing use and development of AI technology would eventually turf out and replace human lawyers. However, a University of Oxford Group report, AI-assisted lawtech: its impact on law firms, has predicted that AI will, instead, create new roles.

Designed to find out how AI can be used to enhance the way the legal profession operates, the report identifies that while various systems, including contract analysis will take over some tasks, they will not replace a human’s overall job responsibility. Because of this, human lawyers will “find themselves better able to focus their energies on the tasks – such as bespoke work and client interaction – for which they have comparative advantage.”

The report adds: “This augmentation of their productivity may itself stimulate demand for legal services. Moreover, the deployment and use of technology creates demand for humans capable of performing the new tasks this necessitates.”

The report also urges the government to enable access to data for training machine-learning systems. Without this data, there is a “major barrier to AI deployments for law firms and other legal service providers”, according to the report.

It “paints a broadly positive picture of the impact of AI lawtech on the English and Welsh legal sector”. Around 50% of lawyers are already using the technology and the software’s introduction is “encouraging lawyers to work more efficiently, acquire new skills, and work with a more diverse group of people than previously.”

For more insight into how tech will impact the legal profession, head to LCN’s Commercial awareness hub.