Summary of Panel Discussion on AI Adoption in Legal

Development of AI tools is on the rise, and the majority of business professionals believe that AI will "highly or transformationally affect their work within five years”. However, AI utilization faces several challenges and obstacles. FLEX recently joined a panel discussion of AI-based legal tools, in which the group identified an even split between data privacy/security compliance and training/user adoption as the biggest challenges to AI tool adoption. Close behind were concerns over challenges with integration of AI tools into existing infrastructure and budget constraints.

Assuming those roadblocks can be overcome, there was a strong belief among participants that legal roles will not be usurped by AI over the next 3-5 years. To the contrary, the vast majority of participants expressed a view that AI will transform legal work by automating routine tasks like document review and contract analysis (at least the first phase of review), and free up lawyers to focus on more sophisticated, complex, and nuanced legal analysis. A recent survey carried out by Thompson Reuters in their Future of Professionals Report found that 85% of respondents believe that “the incorporation of AI into their practices will require adding new roles and skills, including specialists in implementation, training, and cybersecurity.”

As AI companies continue to enhance and improve existing offerings based on client feedback, AI legal tool adoption will undoubtedly increase. The most important considerations for lawyers when determining whether and which AI tools to adopt are accuracy & reliability, followed by ease of use, security, and cost-effectiveness-- all of which should improve over time and allow lawyers to be more efficient and focus on complex legal analysis and advice.