The use of artificial intelligence by law firms has garnered significant scrutiny over the past year. But the potential benefits and risks of the use of AI tools by in-house lawyers and legal department staff warrant similar reflection. And given the pace of development in the AI space, the time for that reflection is now.
No conversation on AI should proceed without first setting out the definitional groundwork. “AI” has become somewhat of an unwieldy catchall that at times appears to include traditional technology tools that have no “intelligence” component. Best understood, artificial intelligence is a technology tool that can perform a function for humans and, over time, “learn” the work and objectives of those humans such that the tool displays improvement on its output.
