Data analytics may already be helping to shift the power balance between law firms and corporate legal departments by providing in-house teams with a solid foundation for weighing in on case strategies or individual attorney selection. But as analytic technology potentially becomes a greater part of those key relationships over the next few years, some familiar problems that have cast a shadow over other legal technologies may begin to emerge.

“I think the battle is going to be the battle we have about AI technology, [which] is how much do we trust it? How do we calibrate the level of human judgment with the level of technological prowess? Meaning AI is getting better, but so much of what we do in the law is complex,” said Mark Yacano, managing director of the transform advisory services team at Major, Lindsey & Africa.