We hear a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the legal and regulatory technology space, so I thought it would be worth looking back at how lawyers and AI have been working hand in hand for almost a decade.
Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning are both subsets of the broader concept of AI. Lawyers, regulators and in-house counsel who are used to litigation, commissions of inquiry or undertaking internal investigations are more than likely to have been exposed to tools based on these notions of AI – particularly where the data volumes are large.
Automated NLP drives the engines of some of the analytic tools found in today’s evidence management platforms, while machine learning in combination with NLP is responsible for some of the computer assisted modelling tools.
Almost every matter that deals with electronic data can benefit from these flavours of AI. In-house counsel and their Boards have been driven by cost reduction efforts - particularly external counsel costs. The ability for AI to determine the who, what, where and why of internal investigations and potential or actual litigation goes a long way to reducing the volume of material handed across to external legal teams for legal review.
Regulators searching through massive volumes of produced material can identify known issues and associated documents but, in addition, they have frequently exposed previously unknown lines of inquiry. This can happen either through the discovery of hidden players in their investigation or similarly hidden facts that are quickly identified using AI. Whilst time and cost are always critical, sometimes the aim of an inquiry is to fully understand the intricacies of a risk event, and this is where AI shines.
Whilst time and cost are always critical, sometimes the aim of an inquiry is to fully understand the intricacies of a risk event, and this is where AI shines.
External legal counsel acting for their clients have been early champions of AI. For years lawyers have been analysing significant volumes of data in some of the largest litigations around the world. The drive to provide the best advice to their clients, and do so whilst being efficient in the time spent, has meant that the assumption that lawyers are inefficient with their time has long been dispelled.
In fact, lawyers as a profession are ground-breaking again as they now grasp the new world of generative AI.
But that is another story …