AI in Legal: Leveraging Automation Tools to Bolster the Bottom Line

Law firms are starting to lean into technology to help them drive efficiencies across their operations, enabling partners and associates to focus on billable hours instead of time-consuming admin tasks. In this recent article in Law Technology Today, QorusDocs CEO and co-founder Ray Meiring shares his thoughts on how law firms can take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools as a competitive differentiator to increase the cost-efficiency of the practice and create new business opportunities.

It’s no secret the legal industry is seeing a rise in tech adoption. As platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT show numerous benefits for streamlining everyday tasks, more firms are starting to adopt this advanced technology to meet industry demands. In fact, recent research shows that AI legal tools will become mainstream in the industry in the next five years.

AI and automation tools can provide great value to law firms’ operations. By leveraging this technology, law firms can increase business opportunities, reduce operational costs, foster essential cross-team collaboration and boost competitiveness.

Leveraging AI to Streamline Operations

According to new research, law firms are experiencing a 10% year-over-year increase in direct expenses. As a result, many law firms are looking for ways to cut costs, increase billable work opportunities and streamline operations.

With artificial intelligence and automation, firms can significantly reduce the number of hours dedicated to time-consuming, repetitive tasks such as document creation and correspondence. In fact, for lawyers specifically, AI and automation can reduce up to 23% of their everyday tasks, allowing them to focus on more billable client-facing tasks.

For example, ChatGPT can assist with contract drafting and reviews by recommending contract language or identifying potential problems found in contract clauses. In addition, law professionals can leverage ChatGPT to provide summaries of cases or court proceedings. It can also read through nondisclosure agreements, employment agreements and other like documents while recommending the best language to use in correspondence, all of which can significantly reduce time for legal staff.

Utilizing Automation to Foster Collaboration

Currently, only 23% of lawyers work exclusively from the office, making tools that enable collaboration within firms essential to keep activity moving. AI-powered platforms can easily integrate with existing technology and everyday applications, simplifying collaboration on important documents.

With these tools, employees can access important documents from anywhere, allowing them to locate and edit documents in real-time. This is essential, considering many lawyers and staff members continue to work remotely post-pandemic. The reliable and easy access to essential documents helps mitigate any bottlenecks that may arise with locating and sharing documents with co-workers.

Staff members can also receive expert and stakeholder feedback in real-time. As a result, they don’t have to spend painstaking time trying to track down subject matter experts. By receiving expert and stakeholder input in real-time, employees can ensure their documents are accurate, up-to-date and complete – all of which is needed to keep operations running smoothly.

Enhancing Competitiveness with AI and Automation

Competition within the legal industry is fierce, making it imperative that law firms have the tools needed to win new business and edge out competitors. As a result, pitch teams need the right resources to craft business-winning, polished pitches. This is where AI and automation come in. With these tools, pitch teams can create more efficient pitch response workflows to win new business.

When crafting pitches, teams must use the most engaging content to convince prospects to choose their firm’s services. To achieve this, AI and machine learning technology recommend the best information for a specific pitch that will resonate most with prospects, leading to more business wins.

In addition, tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT can craft accurate first drafts with the most relevant, business-winning information at the click of a button. This tool significantly streamlines the pitch process, enabling teams to spend less time developing pitches and more time on other important job tasks.

AI-powered automation software is also capable of answering common questions that appear in pitches. This eliminates the need to perform painstaking content searches to track down relevant responses. As a result, firms can save time, effort and resources while ensuring their documents and messaging are consistent. These AI-driven systems also improve over time, streamlining the process further with every document it works on.

The Future of AI and Automation Adoption

Although the legal industry isn’t known for its rapid adoption of new technology, legal professionals are starting to see the value of advanced tools like AI and automation. In fact, 87% of attorneys shared that they’re more willing to work for a company with a legal tech-forward environment rather than a firm behind on current tech trends.

Fortunately, AI and automation tools are readily available in many different forms and can be easily integrated into existing technology systems. Now is the time for law firms to execute their digital transformation strategies and adopt AI and automation platforms to streamline operations, reduce costs, foster collaboration and lead to new business opportunities.