In the session, “Beyond the Hype: How AI is Transforming Legal Work for Maximum Impact” – which you can view here – Cathcart said that not only are large language models (LLMs) changing the way legal professionals work, but that she’s now seeing that “law firms have an increased budget for this type of technology”.

“Lawyers historically have struggled with new tech because, you know, they have to take time out of their busy schedule to do training, things of that nature. But they’re actually [now] saying that we want generative AI, we want things that are going to impact the way that we work. And we’re seeing that it’s switched as far as how lawyers are actually looking to embrace new technology. And we’re seeing a big uptake in generative AI with legal professionals,” she said.

“One of the easiest ways for them to actually leverage generative AI is to not necessarily call it AI, but have technology that’s just enhancing the way they work. Things are happening at a rapid pace. Those things that would have taken them hours now can be done in 30 seconds. And if you look at something like background apps, it happens without the user doing anything at all. So, there are workflows and things that can happen in the back end, leveraging that tech to make things super simple for them.”

AI also enables practitioners to focus on high-value work and less on mundane, repetitive tasks – something Cathcart said is also driving changing expectations around speed and efficiency.

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“I think that generative AI can really help with taking away from the mundane tasks to where [lawyers] can do some of that deep thinking, the things that really impact their clients in meaningful ways. I mean, if you think about it in a big-picture scheme like access to justice, that concept can change. But I also think that if you look at the other side of the coin and how generative AI is going to be changing what we expect, I think it’s not enough just to have ROI. The efficiency piece is critical,” she said.

“For example, with the government right now, there’s a chance that non-competes could be banned. And you could leverage generative AI to go through all of your existing contracts, identify clauses that would no longer be compliant and replace it with something else and then be able to transfer that back to all of your clients. So, the investment from the business side of things is something that people are really needing out of it now. It’s not enough just to be quicker. We’re really seeing a different level of expectation.”

While AI in the profession was originally met with a few concerns and more hesitation, the tech is now having a “very interesting” effect and resulting in lawyers going back to their core legal skills.

“When generative AI first came and there was that hype that we were talking about, there was this whole concept of, is it going to replace lawyers? What is it going to do? How is it going to change? Are we going to be overpowered by AI? But I actually have a very different view on it. I think that if there’s something that you can have technology do for you that’s going to yield the same results, let it. There are more meaningful things that you can do, and that’s what makes you great at your profession. So, if you think about what you actually automate with generative AI, what’s left is your strategic advantage,” Cathcart said.

“And so, when we put more of an emphasis on that end result, I think that’s a win for the client, and it’s a win for the lawyer as well. And that is something that’s kind of unexpected but exciting, that’s coming out of this tech. So, it’s an exciting time.”

AI and technology that can be deployed automatically are also easier to adopt – and, in this sense, have helped the legal profession with change management, according to Cathcart.

“It’s no secret that lawyers have historically struggled with change management. A lot of that comes down to [not having] time to do all the training. There’s usually a solution, and the IT team is burdened with figuring that out. And so, now, lawyers are excited about generative AI, but this is actually the first time, I think, in the history of the legal profession, that we’ve seen the legal industry at the forefront of change. So, when it comes to change management, we’re seeing that with these AI assistant tools and these background apps and these things that can happen automatically, it’s actually easier to be adopted,” she said.

“If you take away the concept and the buzzword of AI and you just say, this is going to happen, this is the end result. It’s much more efficient. It’s intuitive. It’s not technology where we’re used to. A large language model is like talking to a human, which is weird because it’s technology, but there are little bits of different information. There are just so many different ways that you can interact with it without having to have any type of training. You just get what you need, and it works.”

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