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Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been rumoured to eventually replace legal professionals. However, one legal tech leader is adamant that the human elements of legal service delivery mean lawyers will not be replaced.
Following her panel at Lawyers Weekly’s inaugural Tech Innovate event, NetDocuments’ Asia-Pacific head, Jennifer Cathcart, spoke with Lawyers Weekly to address the urgent concern that AI might soon take over the legal profession and make lawyers obsolete in the near future.
Without hesitation, Cathcart has declared that AI will “absolutely not” replace lawyers, emphasising her belief that there is “no world where any type of technology replaces lawyers”.
AI has undeniably revolutionised many industries, including the legal profession, in which she acknowledged that “there is a level of work” AI can effectively automate, allowing lawyers to allocate less of their time to these routine responsibilities and tasks.
However, Cathcart elaborated that once these repetitive tasks are automated, the remaining components of legal practice are characterised by the lawyer’s “strategic advantages”, which she contended technology cannot easily replicate.
She also emphasised that human connection is an irreplaceable and essential element within the legal profession, something that AI is incapable of comprehending or processing.
“AI can’t feel emotion. AI can’t intuitively pick up on something in a room when you’re interviewing a client about a sensitive situation.
“There’s something that only humans can do and that can never be replaced by technology, and I think that those types of things are really important [to remember],” she said.
Cathcart posited this rapidly evolving technology has encouraged those in the legal profession to “appreciate more” the human element that is integral to the industry.
While AI and large language models possess the capability to understand specific concepts and provide answers based on learned knowledge, Cathcart maintained that AI can’t substitute the ethical and legal judgment required in complex situations.
“There are certain concepts that can absolutely be understood by a large language model and that can be answered semantically and provide an answer to a question. But there’s an overall concept of what the right thing to do here is that I think is fundamental to law, and that is something that just can’t be replaced,” she said.
Looking ahead, Cathcart expressed enthusiasm about the future of AI in the legal profession this year. She reflected on the evolution of AI’s role in the profession, noting that “2023 was definitely a year of hype, and 2024 was a year where people questioned [the true potential of] AI”.
However, she believes that “this year we’re past that stage. People have real use cases, there’s substance to what we’re doing, the scepticism has definitely subsided to a degree, and people are really embracing it”.
She also spoke with Lawyers Weekly about the most effective and accessible ways to weave AI into law firms’ daily operations – especially for those yet to get on board.
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