24 Voices for 2024 Report

A Harvard Business School research study of

text and uses natural language makes it particularly

tasks completed by knowledge workers at the

well-suited to knowledge work generally and legal

Boston Consulting Group found that AI significantly

work specifically. In a panel discussion at the

increased performance and quality for every model

NetDocuments 2023 Inspire user conference, Greg

specification, increasing speed by more than 25%,

Siskind, Co-Founder of Siskind Susser Immigration

performance as rated by humans by more than 40%,

Lawyers, described AI’s appeal: “What do lawyers

and task completion by more than 12%. Further, it

do all day long? We research, we read, we digest

operated in a way that benefited non-knowledge

information, and then we draft. AI can make our

workers the most, though all users benefitted from

day-to-day work easier in a lot of respects because it

AI. 4

can do a lot of those tasks.”

How To Prepare for AI

To capture the potential of AI, consider the following plan of action:

time to think more strategically and enhance outcomes — not as a way to reduce headcount. Stress that AI will enhance, not replace, legal skills. • Recognize and evaluate the ethics of AI uses: Develop guidelines for the ethical use of AI in legal work. Consider biases in training data and recognize that AI models are imperfect. • Find the right AI partners: Identify legal AI vendors and consultants who understand the legal industry and can collaborate closely on integrating AI tools into workflows while protecting client confidentiality and data privacy. • Start measuring results: Collect metrics on key indicators like time savings, error reduction, and employee and client satisfaction to quantify the impact and ROI of AI experiments. • Incorporate feedback: Get regular user feedback on AI tools and leverage it to refine workflows and improve adoption. Learn from challenges as well as successes.

• Educate lawyers and staff on AI capabilities and limitations: Provide training on basic AI concepts so they understand the technology’s potential and don’t have unrealistic fears or expectations. Internal policies that provide guidelines for using AI will help ensure it’s used responsibly and in line with the firm’s or department’s obligations to clients and stakeholders. • Identify suitable pilot projects: Look for legal processes that have clear workflows and data inputs as good candidates for initial AI experiments. Start small with proof of concept projects. Consider putting together an AI committee that is made up of both IT professionals and fee earners to capture use cases that will benefit multiple individuals in the firm. • Realize AI is a tool to augment lawyers, not replace them: Position AI as a tool to make lawyers more efficient and effective, to free up

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