Generative AI is dominating all of internet and challenging the beliefs about legal careers.
So what do I teach the next generation of lawyers in my university class about how to succeed in these interesting times?
Here are the top 10 AI / GPT predictions, hacks, debunked myths, and things you need to know that I believe that every lawyer and law student should know.
#1 It is a tool
AI is primarily a tool, so your best bet is to understand and master it.
I promise your prompting will get better over time (and so will the outputs as well as the AI itself).
If you are interested in getting better in prompting, there is a great newsletter by Josh Kubicki on this topic (you can sign up here) that I gladly added to my list of recommended readings.
#2 Double check
Don’t take any outputs as authoritative. There is bias, hallucinations, and general garbage that has been fed to these models from all around the internet.
That does not mean that you shouldn’t use the outputs – if you perform a good quality check.
#3 Treat your data well
Be very careful around any use case that involves client, proprietary, personal, or otherwise protected data. Set the boundaries and safeguards clear and before you start.
Once it is a part of the database, it can be discovered and used.
#4 Curating is king
With abundance of SO MUCH knowledge and AI being available (at least to a certain extent) to everyone, this will mean even bigger value add in curated selections, know-how collections, stamps of approval, and trusted advisors.
Using Google Maps, I can find where I can have a cup of coffee everywhere, with ratings and photos. But I will still look at European Coffee Trip for their selection first.
#5 Learn service design
Well-trained legal AI will mean that lawyers will have focus even more on customer service and value added over just delivering a product.
If the clients would be able to self-service, how would you incentivise them to come to you and pay for your services?
We are in business of selling experience – just like any other service industry. There is a lot of inspiration to be drawn from more customer service industries.
Don’t believe me that there is value in this thinking? Compare packing all your stuff and moving in your car to hiring professional movers.
#6 Legal Ops to the moon and beyond
Legal Ops will be even more important in the age of AI.
You cannot implement any tool well without good governance and safeguards, sound procurement process, maintenance, quality checks, and a clear definition of business case.
Plus without a good strategy, who is going to save you from purchasing some tech that is shiny but completely useless for your specific needs?
#7 Human work is a differentiator
Think artisanal vases – the machine made ones might be more symmetrical, but you can tell what personality created the handmade one.
Using ChatGPT to write first draft can work but will only get you so far – there is value in editing, human touch, and your unique voice – if only because not everyone will take care to put in the work.
Take the best of both worlds – use it to kickstart your work, then refine.
#8 Prototyping supercharged
Legal Designers will have an even more interesting job, as AI applications make prototyping even more accessible.
What do I mean by that? You can (to name a few examples)
- turn law into a first draft chat bot dataset instantly for testing,
- conduct preliminary user interviews to sharpen your questions before facing a human, or
- build a website in no time using GPT+Midjourney/Stable Diffusion/whatever else works+Figma combo
The possibilities are endless, cheaper, and at the click of your finger.
#9 GPT4 passed the US Bar Exam
GPT4 passed the US Bar Exam in the top 10% – which tells us a lot about the US Bar Exam and the legal education in general.
#10 AI will transform, not replace your job
Goldman Sachs study states that about 44% of legal work can be automated.
But it also adds that historically, each wave of mass automation has been offset by the jobs it created.
So put your Growth Mindset into action and get future-proof.
Final provisions
There are so many unknowns in our journey with artificial intelligence that we will need to figure out as a society.
In education, Generative AI can be a touchy subject, and that there is so much we will need to navigate especially in terms of academic honesty.
But I do believe that having a understanding and experience is the best way how to make informed decisions about difficult questions.
So here is to learning and examining as much as we can about this emerging technology.
What do you think?
Baru
