Impact of AI on the legal sector

Artificial Intelligence, Blog (EN), Projects / By /

An interview with Wolfgang Berger on the opportunities and risks of delegating legal issues to AI

Last week, as part of our AI Compass project, we spoke to Salzburg lawyer Dr. Wolfgang Berger about the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on the legal profession. In advance, he sent us his thoughts in written form, which – in accordance with his request – we have made available for download here.

The script by Wolfgang Berger

KI-VORTRAG_korrES_finalDownload

For the online session itself, we generated a graphic mind map from the text impulse that provides a good overview of the points raised.

Mindmap of the textile impulse

We then had Wolfgang Berger explain individual points in more detail in the online session. And discussed with him to gain our own impression of what and how traditional legal professions are influenced by AI – and what skills and future prospects people trained in this way should be looking at. We have summarized the conversation from the audio transcript with Perplexity.

Our online conversation on July 4, 2024

Changes in the legal sector

  • AI will primarily be used for standardized procedures and mass transactions. It is estimated that up to 96% of legal activities could be standard cases that can potentially be processed by AI.
  • Large law firms and auditing companies are already increasingly relying on AI support. They are investing in AI systems to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
  • Smaller law firms and individual lawyers could come under pressure as many of their services could be replaced by AI-supported solutions. Areas such as debt collection or simple legal advice are particularly affected.
  • Specialized lawyers in niche areas will continue to be in demand, as their expertise is harder to replace by AI.

Limits of the use of AI

  • Complex legal issues and decisions still require human judgment. AI can provide information, but the final assessment and decision often has to be made by humans.
  • Ethical questions and credibility assessments cannot be taken over by AI. Assessing the credibility of witnesses or parties remains a central human task.
  • The “human aspect” remains indispensable in many areas of law, especially in sensitive areas such as family law or when assessing witness statements.

Change in the legal system

  • There is a tendency towards harmonization with the American legal system, especially in international commercial law.
  • Contracts are becoming more extensive and detailed, as the American system wants everything in writing, in contrast to the more abstract European law.
  • International arbitration already largely follows Anglo-American models.

Challenges and opportunities

For lawyers

  • Need for specialization and further training in the field of AI. Lawyers must learn how to use AI tools and critically evaluate their results.
  • Focus on advisory activities and complex legal cases that are not easily handled by AI.
  • Dealing with AI-supported legal databases and tools is becoming a basic skill.

For the company

  • Possible improvement in access to legal services through more cost-effective AI-supported solutions.
  • Risk of biases being incorporated into AI systems if they are not carefully developed and monitored.
  • The need for a critical examination of AI-supported legal decisions and their foundations.

Outlook

  • Increasing importance of AI in standardized legal procedures, especially in areas such as contract law or simple legal issues.
  • Continued importance of human expertise in complex legal issues, ethical decisions and the interpretation of new legal situations.
  • The need to adapt laws and legal training to AI developments in order to ensure the responsible and effective use of AI in the legal system.
  • Possible changes in legislation to create more AI-friendly and transparent laws that can be more easily processed by AI systems.

Further links

As part of our AI Compass project, we are working out what AI means for the legal professions in one of our case studies. We will now incorporate the points developed by Wolfgang Berger into our overview and then publish it.

Scroll to Top