More than 80 percent of respondents in a recent survey agree that generative AI will create transformative efficiencies for legal tasks.

These and other findings are contained in a report published by Above the Law and Wolters Kluwer, which fielded a survey of 275 legal professionals from March to mid-April 2023. In it, they asked about AI’s potential effects in varied areas of the legal industry, such as: Will it differentiate successful firms? Which practice areas could be affected the most? Could even high-level work be transformed?

Four notable key findings of the report are:

• 62 percent of respondents believe that effective use of generative AI will separate successful law firms from unsuccessful firms within the next five years.
• More than 80 percent of all respondents agree that generative AI will create transformative efficiencies for research and routine tasks.
• Respondents are less convinced that AI will transform high-level legal work: 31 percent agree that this will happen, while 50 percent disagree.
• More than two-thirds of respondents believe that document review lawyers and librarians or others involved in knowledge management and research are at risk of obsolescence because of generative AI.

That last one is particularly relevant to eDiscovery and is where a notable battle will shape up for companies whose “bread and butter” is billable hours from document review. We saw managed document review providers push back against technology assisted review (TAR) when it began to be used and I would expect even more pushback here.

The 8-page report – chock-full of graphics – is available here. Check it out!

So, what do you think? Do you think generative AI will create transformative efficiencies for legal tasks? Are document review lawyers at risk of become obsolete? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.