What’s the buzz all about?
So much has changed since ChatGPT was launched with little public fanfare in 2022. One such change is the buzz around the use of Generative AI in the legal sector (LegalAI). A recent survey by Thomson Reuters, found that 72% of legal professionals viewed AI as a force for good and take-up of LegalAI is expanding exponentially. The disruption that LegalAI is causing to the sector presents significant opportunities for organisations that are ready to embrace these new technologies and ways of working.
This blog aims to share Jisc Legal’s experience in implementing AI, how it has significantly enhanced our day-to-day work, together with how to make the most of latest developments. As with any new technology, always be aware of the risks as well as the benefits of adopting AI into your organisation, including data protection and information security.
How do we view LegalAI?
We have seen LegalAI’s impact on the legal sector being described as a tsunami, a trojan horse, a stochastic parrot (whatever that is) and even a nuclear bomb!
At Jisc, we see LegalAI like a rocketship. It is a tool that will allow you to go further and faster than ever before, as long as you know how to make it fly. This involves some careful calibration and a trusted pilot onboard to fix any issues as they arise. Without the right preparation you can quickly find yourself a long way from your intended destination.
LegalAI offers a unique opportunity for trusted legal professionals to augment existing legal services and provide more value to their organisations. They can use their foundational skills and experience to guide the AI with the most suitable prompts. This will enable tailored outputs to be produced which meet their organisation’s specific needs in real time.
How has LegalAI helped Jisc Legal?
At Jisc, we use a LegalAI tool which has been fine tuned with industry-specific training data to ensure the best possible outputs. Some of its key capabilities are set out below:
Legal advice
When prompted, the AI draws from a huge range of legal resources to respond like a lawyer, linking directly to legal sources to support the outputs. Users can then ask follow-up questions and drill down into specific information for deeper analysis where needed. The tool can then produce a summary note based on the results for business colleagues. This can be expanded or simplified as needed.
- This frequently helps us to consider wider implications and resources than originally anticipated. The breadth of knowledge that the LegalAI draws from often brings new perspectives, especially when it comes to subject matter expertise.
Legal reviews
LegalAI can provide rapid analysis of uploaded documents. Prompts as broad as “what are the key legal risks to the [relevant party] in this document” are highly effective. Additional prompts can raise further questions or focus on specific areas or risks. We have developed a prompt bank to use in various situations which has accelerated our workflows.
- This allows us to carry out essential business-as-usual tasks more efficiently than ever. By highlighting key risk areas within a document, the LegalAI deciphers the legalese and can guide users swiftly through the document. Other software tools can interrogate documents against standard parameters and playbooks to deliver customised outputs.
Comparative Analysis
LegalAI can process extensive documentation to identify similarities and differences, outliers and anomalies. This information can optimise and safeguard an organisation’s contract portfolio. We are exploring functionality to map contract positions against pre-existing contractual commitments to enable us to highlight any unacceptable risk transfers.
- This helps the team to flag risks and plug gaps across our contractual matrix. We can then address, fix or mitigate issues before they arise.
Drafting
During a negotiation process, LegalAI can assist with drafting specific clauses in a contract where further provisions are needed.
- The AI-drafted clauses are generally high-quality, being accurate and practical with the option to refine as appropriate. We are incorporating our simplified templates and boiler plate clauses into the AI to help produce more focused outputs.
What’s next
We are actively exploring and trialling other LegalAI solutions. In particular we are testing contract review plugins (into Microsoft Word) and contract intelligence/repository solutions to run risk reports and develop wider intelligence about our contracts using customised playbooks.
How has LegalAI helped you at Jisc?
Legal Apprentice:
“For me the greatest benefit of Legal AI has been the efficiency it delivers. With LegalAI I am able to quickly work through legal document reviews, which would have normally taken me double the time without the use of AI. This gives me more time to spend on critical and time consuming pieces of legal work.”
Solicitor:
“I am often asked to provide short-notice advice to what can be thorny legal questions. Our LegalAI tool often presents novel angles to approach these matters. This allows me to consider and, potentially, present a wider range of options to the business.”
Group General Counsel:
“There’s never been a more exciting time to be an in-house lawyer. We are now able to leverage LegalAI to provide enhanced and accelerated legal advice, to enable more focused and effective strategic business partnering”
Top Tips for Legal AI Adoption:
Know what you’re looking for
- Consider the key challenges in your organisation and find the tool which best meets your needs.
- Focus on high impact use cases.
Get started
- AI providers generally offer trials and pilots to test their tools.
- Experiencing the functionality and differences between tools first hand is invaluable.
Beware of a shifting landscape
- Technology which is cutting edge and unique today can become outdated within months.
- Where possible, explore shorter term contracts. This will allow your organisation to be more agile and better able to adopt the latest technology as it is developed.
Find out more by visiting the Artificial Intelligence page to view publications and resources, join us for events and discover what AI has to offer through our range of interactive online demos.
For regular updates from the team sign up to our mailing list.
Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk
