Professionals embracing technologies such as AI, robotics, data rooms, deal management platforms, client portals, automated reporting and e-signatures will be able to provide their services faster, better and at lower rates. Reports Law.com in an article about the upcoming changes in the legal sector…
Here’s the introduction to their piece which is well worth a read in its entirety.
While lawyers, financial advisers, brokers and accountants work to learn about and leverage available technologies to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their client deliverables, technology providers, including many startups, scramble to develop new solutions for the professional consumer in a never-ending race for market-share.
With this come new terminology such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics; and questions such as “will my lawyer or accountant be replaced by a robot?” and “how much of the value and cost savings being created are actually passed through to the end-user/client?”
Professionals embracing technologies such as AI, robotics, data rooms, deal management platforms, client portals, automated reporting and e-signatures will be able to provide their services faster, better and at lower rates. Those unfamiliar with applicable technologies will lack the tools to compete. While very few lawyers still rely on (or even use) physical law libraries, and almost all now use online services for legal research, how many are embracing artificial intelligence to make their research faster and more accurate? If you adversary is familiar with this available technology and you are not, they could show up in court with hard-to-find, but relevant, case law you were not aware of. In addition, the time and costs associated with their research, preparation and other tasks will likely be far less.
As more and more established companies and startups compete to provide this technology to professional service providers, prices drop, the platforms become easier to use, and more professionals have access. Professionals using these technologies solely to maximize their own profits will be ultimately need to push that value down to their clients, which is something that we are now seeing as consumers of professional services (clients) have become more aware of the available technologies and value created, and in some cases, have deployed these technologies themselves internally.
This is particularly true in the construction industry, which is no stranger to sizable documents and ESI productions. The contracts, insurance policies and plans/specifications governing a project and all of the relationships are intricate, unique and voluminous. In addition, a large amount of information is created and exchanged during the course of a project. Managing this information in real time during the projects, as well as after completion in the event of claims, has necessitated implementation of some of this technology.
