Generative AI in Practice

13THE LEGAL SPHERE: AI-ASSISTED DOCUMENT CREATION AND REVIEW

You may raise an eyebrow at AI being used in the legal sector. But now, thanks to the latest large language models, GenAI is much better at understanding the context and nuance of complex legal texts. As such, it is proving a useful tool in the work that lawyers do, particularly when it comes to reviewing legal documents and drafting text.

GenAI has so much promise in the legal sphere that two-thirds of large law firms in the United Kingdom say they are exploring the potential of GenAI (along with approximately a third of smaller law firms).¹ Meanwhile, in the United States, 67% of in-house counsels expect their outside law firms to use GenAI tools in their work.² Another report asked 379 lawyers and other legal professionals about ChatGPT – with more than 90% saying they’d used it.³ We can therefore expect the workload of lawyers and other legal professionals to change as they increasingly find themselves working alongside AIs.

But that’s not all. As we’ll see in this chapter, GenAI can also help everyday people tackle legal questions and issues.

The Use of Generative AI in Law Firms

GenAI holds transformative potential for the legal profession. As GenAI systems become more sophisticated, they will facilitate the work of lawyers in several ways.

Potential GenAI uses

We’ll get to specific examples later in the chapter. But for now, let’s explore overarching use cases. GenAI can support legal professionals with ...