Five brain teasers from Tredion and Epona's AI roundtable
AI and the legal profession: what are law firms wracking their brains over?
"IT is now the heart of the office and AI is the up-and-coming talent."
AI and the legal profession
At Epona, we love progress. Therefore, together with Tredion, we organised a round table discussion with lawyers and IT managers from Hertoghs Advocaten, Van Traa Advocaten, VDT Advocaten, AK Advocaten and more. The report of this roundtable can be found here. What are mid-sized firms in the Netherlands focused on when it comes to AI? Here we share the five biggest brain teasers from this session on AI in legal practice.
1. IT at the heart of the office
Peter van der Westerlaken of Hertoghs Advocaten bit the bullet with a clear statement: “IT is now at the heart of the office and AI is the up-and-coming talent”. As a new talent, AI offers many advantages, but also raises questions. Everyone at the table is especially curious about what the near future holds and how they can prepare for it. The main conclusion here is: read a lot, talk to other firms, take a look behind the scenes and talk to suppliers such as Epona and Tredion to get informed.
2. Moving to the cloud
"When things go fast, go slow."
Most firms have already moved to the cloud. But are they ready for AI? The technology is ready to make the leap, but what about the confidentiality of your data? Those present agreed that everyone wants to make it work, but it is tricky in practice. The discussion revolved around how to link AI with internal and external data and how to deal with data and security. Jan from Tredion asked the group if they are worried about the security aspects. In response, Bart from Epona highlighted the risks of external tools: “For seven years, I have been trying to persuade firms to move to the cloud. In seven days, they decide to put their data into an AI tool without asking the right questions”. Clearly, a good plan of action for moving to the cloud and securing data is important.er ligt van de security aspecten. Bart van Epona haakte hierop direct in en benadrukte de risico’s van externe tools: “Zeven jaar probeer ik kantoren over te halen om naar de cloud over te stappen. In zeven dagen besluiten ze hun data in een AI-tool onder te brengen, zonder de juiste vragen te stellen.” Het is duidelijk dat een goed plan van aanpak, van de overstap naar de cloud en het veiligstellen van data van belang is.
3. AI and data security
Point two leads us directly to the third point: What questions should you ask an AI party? The conversation revolved around the need for anonymisation, the location of data storage, and data sharing. Bart warned: “We are dealing with sensitive data. You don’t want it to end up somewhere else. But that also applies to your knowledge. You give it to an AI third party, and then what? Can you then rent that knowledge, and is it used by other parties?”. The group agreed that it is essential to take things slowly and ask questions carefully. As Jan-Willem Makkinga from Van Traa Advocaten said: “When things go fast, go slow.”.
4. The role of the intern
How will AI impact the role of the intern? Van Traa Advocaten has set up a working club to discuss how the work is changing, based on practical experience. Bart and Jan suggested that data scientists and prompt engineers will become crucial new roles. Bart and Jan stressed that asking critical questions of AI vendors and formulating good prompts are becoming increasingly important. New employee skills are needed to survive. The group discussed how AI is changing the profession, especially in tasks such as finding and processing statements. This can take away the initial part of the work, changing not only the use of support staff but also the role of the intern.
5. Customer expectations
Firms have to keep up with AI because their clients expect them to. One of the firms at the table indicated that it was recently asked by a large client: “What is your AI strategy and what does that do to the price?”. AI makes processes more efficient, but also more expensive. Balancing costs and benefits remains a challenge. Dirk from VDT Advocaten argued that AI can easily process large amounts of data and perform tasks, speeding up business processes. But he also warned that the cost will not necessarily go down, because processing AI responses is not cheap.
The group also discussed how big firms like Allen & Overy are investing heavily in AI to gain competitive advantage. And for good reason: they see that this is the future. What they do, medium-sized firms cannot do, but continuing to look at each other is a must. The consensus was that for this group, it would be prudent to explore the market well, remain curious and apply the introduction in stages.
Conclusion
The roundtable discussion provided valuable insights on AI in the legal profession. Balancing benefits and challenges remains a key issue. Want to know more? Sign up in advance for our whitepaper ‘Artificial Intelligence and Document Management Systems’ which will be launched soon and stay up to date with the latest developments.
Whitepaper “Artificial Intelligence & Document Management System”
This article is part of the “Artificial Intelligence & Document Management Systems” campaign, in which we address the opportunities and challenges for legal professionals. This campaign also includes a whitepaper. In this whitepaper, we discuss the benefits and challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for document management within the legal sector. We explore how AI is being used to automate tasks and gain valuable insights into office operations. We also cover the legal impact of AI and provide guidance on how to deal with these aspects. Packed with practical tips, of course!