A survey by LexisNexis states that lawyers see massive potential with gen AI tools to assist with researching (65%), drafting documents (56%), and document analysis (44%).
AI transforms legal research and processes, assisting in due diligence, compliance checks, and analyzing historical data for insights. It shapes strategies, manages client expectations, and enhances accuracy and speed in law practice.
However, incorporating AI in legal research poses challenges, notably safeguarding client data and ensuring confidentiality for law organizations.
But here we have a catch-22 situation: the effectiveness of AI legal research relies on coherent data input.
AI legal research and analysis uses many subsets, such as NLP, ML, and AI-powered search engines.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP allows AI systems to glean and scrutinize information from legal documents, streamlining document analysis.
Machine Learning (ML): Machine learning assists with legal thinking by analyzing innumerable cases, learning trends, and predicting outcomes in similar situations. It promotes informed decision-making and devising future strategies with cases.
AI-Powered Search Engines: AI accelerates the process of case analysis, saving time and effort for professionals by offering thorough and precise insights.
AI-powered legal research can analyze huge collections of legal documents like case law, contracts, and statutes within minutes or seconds. These tools abstract pertinent information, learn patterns and offer content-based classification using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms.
AI can best garner insights by studying historical legal resources such as judges’ rulings, legal precedents, and case outcomes. Professionals can leverage these insights to devise future strategies, predict outcomes, and gauge risks.
Generative AI can revolutionize legal research capabilities. Law firms depend on extensive research to prepare cases and make sound decisions. Gen AI automates browsing through statutes, precedents, and case law to present legal information rapidly.
The utilization of Gen AI expedites the research process by sharing concise summaries, underscoring crucial arguments, and forecasting potential outcomes utilizing historical data. Contract analysis and review are also areas where Gen AI plays a valuable role by spotting essential terms, risks, and discrepancies within agreements.
Gen AI fosters intelligible decision-making by flagging potential issues, determining relevant data points, and extracting significant insights for attorneys.
Data is the life and blood of any AI system. Therefore, the bias in any AI legal research tool results from the data it’s trained on. AI extends these discriminatory patterns, leading to unjust or dissatisfactory outcomes if the historical data used to prepare your models is compromised.
End of day any tool is limited by the ability of its user. Thats where human review and finetuning at key steps in the AI workflow makes the difference.
As you are aware gen AI tends to develop hallucinations and sycophancy over time in the direction of data it has been fed.
These are ironed out through human intervention to deliver appeals containing rank ordered arguments supported with clinching case law precedents. Often few arguments and precedents need to be set aside for higher appellate use.