The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Law

In the next decade, the way we use AI in the legal field is going to change a lot. AI is to lawyers what a handy assistant is to any professional – it is getting smarter and more helpful as time goes on. 

Carina Negreanu, who works at a company that uses AI to manage contracts, offers us a glimpse into the future. Let's break it down into stages to understand better.
 

By 2024

AI will be smart enough to read through legal papers and find useful information, much like a helpful assistant who takes the boring work off your hands. This will make lawyers and their teams faster at putting documents together because AI can also help check their work quickly.

AI is becoming really useful for handling contracts. It can check contracts super-fast to find business chances or issues, which saves time and money. However, AI isn't quite smart enough to give tailored advice or make changes that match each lawyer's personal style.
 

From 2025 to 2026

Expect AI to get even better, giving more accurate help that feels like it's made just for you or your business. Lawyers will watch AI become a bigger part of their everyday work, helping them focus more on the creative and super complex parts of their jobs. Their roles will start to change a lot during this time, especially in big corporations and financial businesses.

Legal assistants and paralegals will see their jobs change the most. AI will do a lot of the basic work they used to do. But, by learning how to work with AI, they can become even better at their jobs and might outdo experienced lawyers who haven't adapted to AI.
 

Jump to 2030

AI will be even more involved, doing complex tasks and planning ahead. It will know when to ask for a human's opinion or help. By this time, AI could take over certain jobs from humans, like setting up meetings or taking notes.

With AI doing more work, law firms might have to rethink how they charge for their services, which is usually done by the hour. Some might still bill by the hour, but others could find new ways to measure how much their work is worth based on what they get done with AI's help.

Check Out: Celebrating Volunteer Lawyers: Making Justice a Reality for Everyone
 

Fast forward to 2034

AI will likely be like a work partner for lawyers. People without a legal background could use AI to get legal advice pretty well on their own. Mistakes in legal work will go down a lot, and legal help will be much easier for everyone to get. This is great news for legal areas that don't have a lot of money today, like human rights law.

We'll also see a big change in how we teach law. Instead of just memorizing stuff and digging up information, students will need to think critically and learn how to work with AI and check its work.

Throughout this journey, marking the progress of AI in law is key to understand how it can make society better and help everyone feel more comfortable with these changes. AI's evolution in the legal field will make it super useful for people in charge of legal stuff at companies.

All in all, as we look towards the next 10 years, we'll see AI transform in ways that make the law more accessible, efficient, and fair.

-

Need more legal guides? Check out the articles here.