For the legal professional, AI boils down to the following -

(1) A Hard Reality Check

(1) A Hard Reality Check

(1) A Hard Reality Check

AI will not take your job, but a legal professional who understands AI will.

AI is here to stay.

AI is growing very fast and not diminishing.

AI will take away redundancy and give that redundancy to a computer, a “robot” as it were, leaving, for humans, at the moment, only creative and strategic thinking.

Good news! Legal professionals are very good at creative and strategic thinking.

However, in this new AI era, only the legal professionals who know how to use and manage AI will be able to survive and thrive as creative and strategic thinkers.

(2) Robot vs. Lawyer

(1) A Hard Reality Check

(1) A Hard Reality Check

Legal work is comprised of both redundant and creative and strategic work.

Redundancy can be up to 75-90% of any given job or task.

Most often, redundant work triggers boredom, anxiety, and other negative challenges to one’s well-being.

With less redundant work and more time for creative and strategic thinking, you can work more efficiently (a) with current clients, and (b) to compete in the marketplace.

With more time for creative thinking legal professionals will have more time to influence how AI regulation gets built and help more people gain access to justice.

The lines drawn between redundant and creative and strategic work depends upon the task and the goals of that task.

The lines for legal AI processes will be determined and invented by those who are swimming in the AI pool. Today the AI pool is filled with tons of technologists and not many lawyers.

The type of ideation required is not AI coding, per se, but instead legal workflow ideation, by lawyers for lawyers. Unfortunately, this is not happening enough right now.

(3) Remaining Competitive & Sane Simultaneously

(3) Remaining Competitive & Sane Simultaneously

(3) Remaining Competitive & Sane Simultaneously

Law is a combination of both redundant and creative/strategic work, with lawyers getting paid for both.

In 2024, the legal business model will be highly disrupted.

The entire legal ecosystem is going to be aggressively challenged by your:

Needing to discern daily what is AI hype vs. AI reality;

Clients' shifting AI demands and expectations;

Vendors' AI upgrades and other operational AI challenges;

New-hires' and current employees' AI expectations;

Needing to upskill your employee-base in the lawful, ethical and technological use of AI;

Needing to find new ways to remain competitive;

Discerning where AI and legal ethics overlap and diverge; and

Needing to assess and implement fastly growing AI regulations for your clients and your organization.

(4) More Hard Reality

(3) Remaining Competitive & Sane Simultaneously

(3) Remaining Competitive & Sane Simultaneously

Socially and financially, #1-3 will be challenging. By way of example, think about the challenges faced during the pandemic’s “work-from-home” pivot, and then 2023’s “return to work” pain points, but, this time, on steroids.

Outsourcing some of these ideation tasks to others, or looking to lobbyists and other advocates, may prove to be limited and expensive short term solutions.

Self-knowledge will prove to be more efficient in the shorter term, and will reap more rewards in the longer term.

The old ways are gone. But, while scary, the new ways can be fun, profitable, humanitarian, and increase well-being, if you understand AI and its new rules, yourself, and the profession.

In order to swim and succeed in the AI pool, legal professionals will need to understand the basics of AI, but through a legal lens, not so much a technological one.