We are in the fourth industrial revolution and the legal industry is no stranger. On the contrary: with the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the traditional way of working in law firms is beginning to change. As we will see below, the adoption of AI in companies to achieve operational efficiency is a trend. However, it is necessary to identify in advance the actual needs and the appropriate technology that meets them.
It is important to clarify that the integration between AI and legal practice is not new. In recent years there have been developments with AI that make it possible to extract summaries of sentences and legal lines. However, it should be noted that not everything is AI, such as contract automation or blockchain developments, so it is necessary to be very careful with the language to avoid inaccuracies.1.
Now, since last year, with free access to generative AI (GIA) developments2 Like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bard and Bing, AI was increasingly seen as a relevant point in the delivery of legal services, which is why many companies began to put the integration of this technology into their digital transformation projects on their agenda.
It is highlighted here that not all companies are at the same level and every company has a different level of digital maturity, so this cannot be generalized. There are companies that have been using third-party AI tools for some time because of their customers; others have done so based on their data through internal developments, and still others have formed alliances with technology-based companies.
Different postures
According to a late March 2023 survey of lawyers at large and medium-sized firms in the US, UK and Canada conducted by Thomson Reuters, around 51% of respondents said ChatGPT and IAG should be applied to legal work3. In Colombia, there are companies that have decided to ban its use, others have decided to allow it but based on internal guidelines, and still others have opposed it.
For companies, improving the use of technology remains high on the priority list.4and many have begun to structure their own legaltech projects, as reflected in the recent Statista report The global Legal Tech Market-2023.
Finally, before integrating any technology, it is very important to understand the context and needs of companies and to use these types of tools responsibly, ethically and safely, to be able to go beyond a simple trend or technological fashion. Today we know ChatGPT, but there is still a long way to go until new developments arrive from Microsoft, Google and Meta.
1. The distinction between AI in terms of machine learning, neural networks and deep learning is fundamental. https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/ai-vs-machine-learning-vs-deep-learning-vs-neural-networks.
2. It is a type of AI that uses algorithms, existing data and cues to generate content such as texts, images, videos and music, among others, with or without human supervision.
3. Thomson Reuters. Should ChatGPT/generative AI be applied to legal work? (Graph). In Statista. https://www-statista-com.cvirtual.cesa.edu.co/statistics/1385400/chat-gpt-generative-ai-applied-to-legal-work/.
4. https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/legal-professional-business-support-services/law-firms-survey.html.
