Insight: Generative AI tools in the legal market and the escalating enthusiasm

Sponsored content. Discover how new, innovative, generative AI legal platforms, like Lexis+ AI, are helping unleash new potential for firms and legal departments, heralding the dawn of a new day

Generative AI is a new frontier. According to a 2024 LexisNexis survey, its adoption more than doubled from July 2023 to January 2024 alone – a speed unprecedented in the legal market.

Laura Halls

Laura Halls, Content Marketing Manager

Generative AI is helping grow ambitions

UK legal professionals have quickly recognised the value generative AI can bring to their work. Firms and legal departments have promptly pivoted their investment plans to include AI.

As generative AI has been better understood by lawyers, so too have the opportunities it presents. And, lawyers have become more ambitious in their growth goals and aspirations for the technology.

A Goldman Sachs report suggested that generative AI could automate 44 per cent of legal work in the near future. It’s clear to see AI is coming to the law and it is coming quickly. But is this a threat or an opportunity to the legal way of life?

Using the right platforms is step one in unleashing the opportunities around generative AI. The right platform can reduce the time spent drafting documents, finding answers to legal queries, sourcing relevant precedents or citations, streamlining business development or administrative tasks and more.

The time saved could allow your team to bill more, work less, bring in new business and strengthen client relationships.

Being aware of the risks

Legal generative AI tools can have many positive results and outcomes, but there are risks. It’s important to be aware of these and use this technology responsibly. The recent generative AI survey from LexisNexis found that 90 per cent of lawyers had technology concerns.

The survey revealed key worries are the reliability and accuracy of the outputs and the security of the tools. But, the 2023 LexisNexis Bellwether report found 24 per cent of respondents said they’d consider using public-access or free-to-use AI sources. And, three-quarters said they’d accept a risk level of up to 70 per cent. For a profession that trades on accuracy and reliability – this is concerning. Public access AI has no legal grounding and can lead to errors, hallucinations (content that is entirely fictional but is presented as fact) and bias.

When AI tools are grounded on trusted and audited legal content these risks can be reduced. LexisNexis has one of the world's largest collections of legal content – ranging from primary and secondary law, legal encyclopaedic works, practical guidance and precedents.

LexisNexis’ tool, Lexis+ AI sources its answers from the huge collection of curated LexisNexis content. It offers a direct link to the grounding content so that the legal practitioner can check for themselves what the law actually says.

To have faith in the accuracy of an answer, AI tools need human oversight and refining. This requires an army of legal subject matter experts and data scientists who review outputs and provide clear guidance on what needs to be improved to meet the legal use case. With more than 2000 specialists worldwide, LexisNexis collaborates closely with experts at leading law firms such as Macfarlanes, Pinsent Masons and CMS UK. These experts are part of a testing and feedback programme, challenging Lexis+ AI with real-life scenarios.

Unleashing potential, increasing efficiency and maximising productivity

The 2024 generative AI survey revealed that the top two priorities for generative AI are document drafting (91 per cent) and researching legal matters (90 per cent). Unsurprisingly, text-based tasks such as writing emails and document analysis were also in high demand.

It’s the dawn of a new day for the legal market. The landscape is changing and large firms, small firms, solo consultants, barristers and in-house departments must all adapt.

With the right platform, the potential for legal practitioners who welcome this technology is boundless. From strengthening client relationships and expanding existing portfolios to attracting and retaining the best talent, increasing productivity and creating new career paths, the future is AI-enabled.

Find out how Lexis+ AI is transforming legal workflows.

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