AI could take over day-to-day legal work from lawyers in 3-5 years, shows survey

Legal professionals and aspiring lawyers may soon start facing competition from artificial intelligence (AI) which could take over day-to-day tasks in the next three to five years. A survey by BML Munjal University (BMU) School of Law and legal search/consulting firm Vahura showed that 90 percent of the respondents (lawyers) foresee use of digitisation and technology in the sector. The survey titled'Decoding the Next - Gen Legal Professional' sought to capture the practitioners' perspective of the practice of law and to identify the relevant skills required of lawyers in the rapidly transforming legal environment in India. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Nigam Nuggehalli, professor and dean of the BMU School of Law said that tasks like due diligence that is traditionally done by legal professionals could be taken over by AI. "In areas like due diligence which requires detailed inspection, maybe AI can do it better," he added. According to the survey, technology solutions in the legal space may replace some human roles at the entry-level by way of automating repetitive and standardized work but are expected to augment others such as reviewing documents more efficiently.