My 10-year-old son may never need to learn to drive a car. Instead, we may, at that stage in his life, all be driven around in driverless cars. All thanks to current advancements being made in automation and artificial intelligence.

That fact alone boggles my mind.

A Starting Point

Artificial intelligence (AI) is something we cannot ignore. But there are two areas where AI often gets incorrectly blurred: the areas of automation and actual AI itself.

Often, when one says the phrase “artificial intelligence” or “machine learning,” an immediate reaction is to think of hardware in a factory that makes humans redundant because humans are no longer required. Robots or machines will essentially steal jobs. There is some truth to this, particularly in the lower-to-middle class manufacturing sector, where automation and robotics will affect.

For instance, simple chatbots will replace humans in certain call centers. Cab or Uber drivers may be replaced by driverless cars. Machines and robots will replace industrial workers. And gradually, your smartphone will practically control everything in your house; this is already happening mostly in our new Internet of Things (IoT) world. We are at the beginning – or even middle – of a “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Quite possibly the beginning of a Fifth (depending on who you ask or what you read.)

But there is also much speculation that automation will boost wealth, despite this job loss, creating new jobs in the digital and service sectors. That is to say, it will lead to greater efficiency within the workplace and lead us to work better.

AI

But automation is very different from actual AI itself. AI goes one step further than pure automation, which functions — as the name suggests — doing things automatically, merely without human input. AI is about trying to mimic human intelligence. It is artificial.

AI requires a lot more work than what is necessary to automate. Automation is easy to predict, while AI can be programmed in many different ways, just like the human brain. That is why the implementation of AI and machine learning will, possibly in some sectors of many industries, still take many years to accomplish.

AI is, however, already being used in your everyday life, and perhaps you probably don’t realize it. For example, you are going to Amazon and seeing what you might be interested in purchasing, turning on Netflix, and seeing it predict shows you might want to watch. YouTube’s recommendations. Siri. Alexa. Google Assistant. Even fraud alerts from banks. These are algorithms generated through the use of AI and big data.

The “deep learning” AI requires involves more than just new jobs in the service sector — it requires humans to learn, analyze, manage and ultimately train the machines and robots attempting to perform the human roles. That will lead to a whole new level of job positions requiring training in universities and starting in high schools. Coding is already becoming as relevant to your child’s education as English and Mathematics are today.

The Modern Legal World

So, what does this future hold for the legal industry? Will clients in, say, 2050 obtain legal advice from robots? In 2060? Or will clients need human lawyers? Will judges be making decisions based on AI?

Much of the “legaltech” world boils down to two concepts: (a) matters which require data input and export and (b) matters which require legal knowledge and analysis.

Legal Data

Simple matters:

– forming companies;

– simple paralegal type functions, such as bundling documents;

– basic research and due diligence;

– issuing straightforward legal opinions;

– drafting things like wills and basic court applications; and

– matters extending to the administrative functions within law firms, such as performing KYC on new clients and HR functions.

Many of these processes are form-filling exercises. Any process which is mainly basic and can be conducted in volume based on precedent will eventually be more or less automated, with the correct programming over time.

Will this lead to fewer lawyers? It will undoubtedly lead to greater efficiency in law firms — less reliance on human administrative functions (HR, KYC, paralegals, for instance). This is a combination of both automation and AI at work. There are some examples of firms already using AI technology, e.g., to weed out employee applications and due diligence platforms such as Luminance, which, amongst other matters, is being used for M&A transactions.

It will affect how firms invoice/bill their clients. When contracts and legal opinions can be reviewed using a high level of AI with little human input, the traditional model of billing clients on a “time spent” basis will become obsolete. Lawyers will need to adapt to AI technology as it spreads before they lose clients to other firms which have adopted the technology faster.

But the result here is a benefit to both the client (better, more efficient service) and the lawyer (the ability to work far more creatively and with less reliance on purely administrative tasks.)

Legal Analysis and Robotics

Robots and the law. Can a judge be a robot? Can robots give more detailed legal advice based on legal analysis? This isn’t automated — it is something that would require very deep learning by the machine and AI programmers behind it.

AI will be very, very intelligent in the future, that is certain. And there are examples of risk-assessment AI tools already being used in some courts in the United States.

But technology has its limitations.

For example, a matter that requires human intelligence, such as a matter in a court where human creativity and judgment are needed to obtain the correct result. Or a complex legal opinion with intricacies where a human touch must achieve an accurate piece of work.

That is not to say some of these limitations cannot be overcome in the very distant future. But it is not possible to predict the future. However, there is one thing that AI will likely never replicate, and that is empathy.

So yes, we should expect the increased use of AI, machine learning, deep learning, and robotics. Things that the world will need to prepare itself for during our lifetime. Steven Hawking has described AI as humanity’s last invention and could even spell the end of humanity. (PS: It won’t.)

For sure, the legal world will increasingly, rapidly change as a result of AI. But bear in mind that AI is programmed technology. And it will only be as effective and valuable as those humans programming it. So it is vital to ensure they have the sufficient skills and experience to do so, but also do so with the necessity of empathy and ethics.

[Author’s note: Updated June, 2021]