Ana Carolina Baraldi Pereira de Mello
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
We need to reflect on the role of lawyers in today’s world. Is it possible that artificial intelligence will replace the lawyer? Is there reason to fear it? There is.
Over the last century, especially in recent years, technology has brought development and evolution, and it is true that as a result many professions have been extinguished and jobs replaced. Despite this, there is no denying the countless benefits resulting from this natural and positive technological revolution and evolution.
Within this context, Artificial Intelligence has reached the legal market and has been a topic of great prominence and debate. But the question arises: is it possible to replace work that is often as artisanal as that of the legal practitioner with technology?
Before going into the subject, it is worth making a simple digression on the meaning of the expression artificial intelligence, which consists of a branch of computer science that aims to develop devices that simulate the human capacity to reason, perceive, make decisions and solve problems.
It is true that the entry of technology into the legal market is a path of no return, but it is also true that its use definitely does not and never will dispense with the figure of the lawyer. Innovation has come to contribute to the legal profession, making work more agile, efficient and prosperous, in order to serve the interests of clients.
An example of this is the Lawtechs and Legaltechs, which are startups that create technology-based products and services to improve the legal sector, thus bringing greater efficiency, capacity for analysis and control, optimizing the lawyer’s time, who will be able to focus on strategic and more relevant issues.
In short, artificial intelligence, applied to Lawtechs and Legaltechs, consists of developing solutions to make lawyers’ lives easier. In this respect, there is a lot of legal software available on the market that goes far beyond controlling cases, promoting jurisprudential and doctrinal research, making agreements, pointing out statistics and trends, among other useful tools.
However, for artificial intelligence to be able to achieve its purpose, it will depend on prior and continuous human work, for data imputation, constant revision and updating. It should also be noted that the best technology will never replace the work of lawyers in strategic demands involving multidisciplinary issues, the client’s particular interests and planning.
We must understand that the use of technology applied to law, in particular artificial intelligence, goes beyond mere software, or the use of a startup, but imposes a change of culture in the business model. The union of human potential with technological tools created by the disruptive business environment represents a major advance, valuing the time of lawyers who must be permeable to innovation. It’s not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that best adapts to change.
