I focus here on artificial intelligence, an area that is currently the subject of heated debate and profound uncertainty about the future of legal professions.
The world of legaltech exploded following the ChatGPT phenomenon (November 2022). Although NLP technology was already being used by some large consulting firms in their legal activities, its use remained marginal. Artificial intelligence applied to law focused mainly on predictive justice.
From 2022 onwards, everyone, lawyers and clients alike, suddenly had access to a solution capable of speeding up their work. The first versions of the now well-known tools (ChatGPT, Mistral, Claude, etc.) were certainly less powerful than the current ones, but their impact was staggering.
The most agile lawyers immediately sought to understand how to integrate this technology into their practice.
A consensus quickly formed among the most knowledgeable: far from spelling the end of the legal profession, these technologies threaten those who refuse to embrace them. Who would hire a lawyer today who is unable—and unwilling—to use Google?
While the integration of generative AI into the legal world presents a real opportunity for lawyers to refocus on client support, it nevertheless comes with risks that need to be anticipated and mitigated. Among the most important are:
- Security: careless use of free solutions exposes firms to the risk of data leaks.
- Reliability: the rate of hallucinations in generative AI remains too high.
- Training: tasks usually assigned to junior lawyers, which are essential to their learning, are the first to be affected by automation.
- Inequality when it comes to new technologies: personal experiences, career paths, and the context in which each individual has evolved mean that not everyone has the same level of familiarity with or mastery of new AI tools, which can create differences in adoption and training needs from one individual to another.
Given these challenges, security awareness and change management are becoming essential elements in the adoption and integration of AI into an organization.
On a societal level, we must also monitor the digital divide that is already emerging between large firms, which are able to invest in secure solutions, and small firms or independent lawyers, who risk losing competitiveness... to the point of being less well equipped than their own clients. There are many possible scenarios for the future, ranging from a reduction in the price of licenses for these AI solutions to the acquisition, in-house, of a few concepts enabling firms to build their own solutions using freely available or, at least, very affordable LLMs. Or perhaps we will see fewer and fewer small firms.
While we don't know what the future holds, everything indicates that training in AI (which tool, for what use, in what way, with what limitations, for what benefits, with what diligence) is a low-risk investment.
This effort to evolve will not only allow lawyers to benefit from the full power of digital technology to enhance the quality of their legal services, but also to feel reassured about what AI really is.
Legaltech should not be seen as a threat, but as an opportunity to reinvent the profession of lawyer or legal professional in the service of the client, combining human expertise and technological power.