10 predictions about how IBM's Watson will impact the legal profession

In July, we talked about whether the change in law should be characterized as "Disruption, Eruption or Interruption?" This week, we drill down into one likely source of change, IBM's Watson. Lawyers have been thinking for a while about whether artificial intelligence would ever start to displace or complement lawyers. Richard Susskind, the leading legal futurist/technologist, did his work in this area starting in the mid-1980s. In the August issue of the ABA Journal, one of the commenters to an article about LegalZoom feared: "Once we have fully artificial intelligence enhanced programs like LegalZoom, there will be no need for lawyers, aside from the highly specialized and expensive large-law-firm variety."