The role of artificial intelligence in the legal sector The Student Lawyer

Two major threats that the legal sector is facing at the moment are the growing number of alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) and the entry of the Big 4 accountancy firms – KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC. The result is an increasingly competitive market where clients want services that are cost efficient. In response, law firms have started to adopt technology-based solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) in an attempt to lower costs. The most common way AI is being deployed is Technology Assisted Review (TAR). This means that barring documents that are specific to an agreement, most documents in a transaction tend to be boilerplate. Examples include employment contracts, licenses etc.