How Expensive Is AI for Law Firms Really?

Connie Brenton, senior director of legal operations at NetApp and chairman of the board of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), said AI technology takes "significant resources to get up and running." Speaking at Legalweek: The Experience 2017 Conference, she joined other experts in explaining the financial reality of AI. "We're talking years before AI fundamentally changes the way we practice law," Brenton said. Jennifer McCarron, technology program manager at Cisco, said lawyers have to account for the costs behind licensing and purchasing the solutions. With Riverview Law's KIM virtual assistant, for example, she estimated the "starting point" for 10 users is about $30,000 to automate and create in-house workflows and processes. She said tailor-made programs with "templates for auto-generated documents" also increase the cost.