Thomson Reuters’ Tech, AI and Law 2024 report explores the augmented future of legal innovation. The survey of 869 legal professionals underscores key trends transforming work practices within the Australian legal sector.
AI’s value proposition of greater efficiency, ‘unlocking time,’ and productivity benefits have become more apparent in the past year. Professionals can focus on work that adds greater value for clients as AI ramps up in popularity.
“GenAl technology continues to disrupt traditional norms and redirect the course of the industry, and we know there is a significant appetite for insight into how legal professionals have harnessed transformative technologies over the past year,” commented Carl Olson, Interim Director for Thomson Reuters, Asia & Emerging Markets.
The Tech, AI and Law 2024 survey findings reflect the myriad experiences of legal professionals, from tech preferences, to the unofficial use of AI in the workplace, to law firm billing expectations.
32% want a GenAI legal assistant in private practice
As AI processes cover basic administrative tasks and low-level work, legal professionals can reinvest the time saved into the pursuit of ongoing learning and professional development, taking on additional client projects, and more.
What about the firms who are still at a nascent stage of AI innovation? Our research found that private practice professionals are making use of AI in the workplace, whether AI is a staple in their firm’s legal technology stack or not.
One in three law firm professionals (31%) said they are using unofficial GenAI systems to support them at work. Furthermore, nearly one in three (32%) want their firm to adopt a GenAI legal assistant.
Future of legal service delivery
The legal industry is evolving, and with AI being woven into aspects of client service, the structure of legal services and pricing will likely transform accordingly.
Nearly three in five in-house professionals (58%) surveyed believe GenAI should be factored into law firm pricing. This could spell an industry transition into value-based service delivery models, which may include transparency on how and when AI is being used.
Keeping ‘humans in the loop’
Legal professionals are aware of AI’s ability to augment the way lawyers work, but they do not see it coming for their jobs. Virtually all private professionals surveyed (95%), agree with the statement, “AI is no substitute for thorough legal work, but it helps to accelerate it.”
GenAI technology has proven its growing value to the profession, according to Carter Cousineau, Vice President, Responsible AI and Data at Thomson Reuters, but ethics, and governance must be addressed.
In-house Tech, AI and Law 2024 survey respondents agree with this sentiment. The respondents have indicated cybersecurity, privacy and accuracy of GenAI output as the top roadblocks to GenAI system adoption. However, responsible GenAI system implementation starts with ‘human-in-the-loop’ oversight.
“As companies rush to implement AI solutions, it’s vital we consider how we implement GenAI.”
“Human involvement is crucial when considering the GenAI models performance, including tracking model drift and overall performance metrics,” said Carter.
“For instance (at Thomson Reuters), we require developers and product owners to include the details of their human oversight process in the model documentation template.”
‘Humans-in-the-loop’ is critical at every stage of software design, development, and deployment at Thomson Reuters according to Carter. Ethics and governance continue to guide Thomson Reuters’ responsible GenAI practices as the technology redefines how lawyers work.
“We have hundreds of advanced subject matter experts review the outputs of our GenAI systems.”
“Post-deployment, teams are dedicated to human-in-the-loop training and monitoring.”
“User feedback, gathered through human reviewers, helps ensure that our models continue to perform as intended,” Carter concluded.
You can download a full copy of Thomson Reuters’ Tech, AI and Law 2024 report here.
