A research programme sponsored by the British government predicts that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a profound effect on the legal profession – but in a way that creates new types of roles for human lawyers.

According to the Law Society Gazette of England and Wales, the report finds that fears that AI computer programmes will replace human lawyers may be overly simplistic.

The report, AI-assisted lawtech: its impact on law firms, was carried out by a group at the University of Oxford.

It calls for action by the British government to enable access to data for training machine-learning systems.

The study aimed to identify how constraints on using AI in legal services could be safely relaxed to unlock its potential, and further improve the way the legal sector operates.

More capacity

Currently, it points out, AI is not displacing human lawyers: systems such as contract-analysis software take over tasks, not overall job responsibilities.

This means that human lawyers have more capacity available for the tasks that cannot yet be automated.

“At the same time human lawyers find themselves better able to focus their energies on the tasks – such as bespoke work and client interaction – for which they have competitive advantage,” the report states.

“This augmentation of their productivity may itself stimulate demand for legal services,” it adds.

Growing divide

The research also found that:

• Around 50% of lawyers surveyed reported already using AI,
• Lawyers are working more efficiently, acquiring new skills, and working with more diverse groups of people, thanks to AI.

“What the technology does not appear to be doing is prompting a radical shift in law firms’ governance regimes and business models,” the report finds.

According to the Gazette, the report also points to a growing division between lawyers who are involved in the development of lawtech, and those who use the technology.

“As more lawyers develop their technology-related skills, it will be interesting to see what impact these changes have the wider legal profession,” said Professor Mari Sako, who co-led the research.

“It is possible that, in future, lawyers with these skills will stop regarding themselves as being traditional lawyers, and instead regard themselves as being part of an emerging profession of legal technologists,” he added.

Client data

The Gazette says that, despite the upbeat tone, the report identifies a major barrier to further application of the technology: lack of access to data for training systems.

“A lack of availability of structured data constitutes a major barrier to AI deployments for law firms and other legal services providers,” it concludes.

Much crucial data for training lawtech systems is owned by clients.

“Firms may find it useful to consider in what circumstances client data can be used to train AI models,” the report suggests.