Artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and in all likelihood it will come to fill every niche of our lives with increasing sophistication and capability.
What will it mean to be a lawyer when much of what we traditionally think of as lawyering – the research, analysis and overlay of experience and judgement to synthesis argument and advice – will be capable of being done faster, cheaper and better by technology such as AI.
What will be left for the human lawyer to do in 2034? I’d like to take an optimistic view. Currently there isn’t enough lawyering to go around – too many people and businesses do not have access to the legal services that would help them get fairer outcomes.
Maybe the greatest opportunity to come from AI in the legal sector is to make law more inclusive than ever before, by drastically cutting unit labour costs, increasing convenience, and removing bottlenecks. AI may even help people and business avoid the problems that give rise to legal issues in the first place.
The great lawyers of the near future may be those who can capitalise on their human communication skills to act as the trusted navigator. The ones who understand both how the technology is best deployed in any given case and how to articulate the problems that people are living through in a way that gets the best out of the technology.
I will be chairing a panel looking at the future of lawyering at our Reshaping Legal Services Conference on 7 March 2024. I hope to see you there!
More stories
