Linked – AI Will Save Lawyers Time – But Does Anyone Want That?
This is the question I keep coming back to about AI and law firms, too:
What if AI saves lawyers time, but it either hurts their profits, or makes no real difference because they still have to bill enough hours to hit their targets?
Sadly, we’ve been here before. How many technological tools have hit the market over the last 20 years that help us work more efficiently? Tons, each one met with skepticism and disdain by lawyers and other industries that sell time. Eventually, when the client paying for that time realizes they are getting bilked by people who refuse to work more efficiently, the technology is adopted somehow.
If the number they quote in the article about gaining four hours per week is accurate, that’s a massive change. In the last few months, many people in the industry have mentioned fixed-rate billing. It’s been an option for law firms for a long time, but it’s only gotten slight traction so far.
That might be about to change. Justifying the current economic model and investing in AI tools that save this much time will be quite challenging. The risks involved with “finding” more billable time are too high. I know; I’ve worked as a consultant before, and while it sounds great that finishing projects ahead of time frees you up to work on other projects, when those other projects don’t come in, you wind up short on your billable hour requirements and those tools that were supposed to make your work-life better, suddenly make it a lot worse.
Instead of being overworked, you wind up laid off, which leaves you wondering what would have happened if you had worked slower and billed more hours.
AI creates a challenge for anyone with billable hour requirements. For lawyers, it’s really a question of whether AI takes off because I don’t believe it is compatible with the current business model. You can’t invest tens of thousands of dollars in AI tools, which also causes the firm to make less money.
Read more at the link:
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2024/07/10/ai-will-save-lawyers-time-but-does-anyone-want-that/
