How Search-powered GenAI is Transforming the Legal Work

Generative AI is revolutionizing various industries, and the legal sector is no exception. Integrating AI-powered search tools is changing how attorneys perform their duties, bringing unprecedented efficiency, accuracy, risk management, and client service improvements. Staying updated with AI trends and acquiring relevant skills will be essential to thrive in this evolving landscape. This article delves into these transformative impacts.

Boost Productivity

GenAI-powered search assistants drastically enhance attorneys’ efficiency and productivity. Traditionally, legal research is time-consuming and requires meticulous examination of vast amounts of legal texts, case laws, and statutes. AI technology simplifies this by swiftly processing and analyzing extensive data sets, providing attorneys with relevant information in seconds.

For example, Sinequa’s Augmented LawyerAssistant can scan thousands of legal documents and cases hosted in multiple and siloed applications (iManage, NetDocs, Sharepoint, Office365…), extracting and summarizing pertinent details. This capability allows attorneys to focus more on strategic thinking and less on routine research tasks, ultimately increasing their productivity. The speed and precision of GenAI-powered searches mean that attorneys can handle more cases and serve more clients effectively.

Enhanced Accuracy

Accuracy is paramount in legal work, where a single oversight can have significant consequences. GenAI-powered search tools enhance the accuracy of legal research by minimizing human error and providing answers to questions in natural language. Sinequa’s Assistant provides precise and secured contextual information by combining GenAI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to understand and interpret complex legal language from the entire law firm data corpus.

It can cross-reference information from multiple sources, highlighting discrepancies and verifying facts. This level of detail is crucial for building strong, reliable cases. As a result, attorneys can make well-informed decisions based on accurate data, reducing the risk of errors that could undermine their arguments.

Comprehensive Risk Management

Managing risk is an essential and intricate aspect of legal practice, requiring careful consideration and proactive measures. In this context, GenAI emerges as a valuable tool, offering multifaceted assistance to legal professionals. One of its key capabilities lies in providing comprehensive risk assessments, delving deep into potential legal pitfalls before they escalate into significant challenges. By leveraging GenAI, such as Sinequa’s Assistant, legal practitioners can access advanced analytical tools that analyze past case outcomes and foresee potential risks associated with ongoing cases. This sophisticated analysis yields valuable insights, empowering attorneys to make informed decisions and adapt their strategies accordingly.

This proactive approach to risk management allows attorneys to adapt their strategies accordingly, mitigating potential legal risks and enhancing their ability to protect their client’s interests.

Improved Client Services

Integrating GenAI-powered search tools represents a significant leap forward in enhancing client services within the legal sector. Today’s clients demand timely and accurate legal advice, and AI technologies enable attorneys to meet these expectations more effectively. By leveraging GenAI, attorneys can streamline their research processes, accessing vast information and insights in a fraction of the time it would traditionally take. This streamlined approach saves time and ensures that the information provided to clients is detailed, accurate, and tailored to their specific needs. This personalized approach enhances client satisfaction and fosters stronger client-attorney relationships with comprehensive data-driven advice and transparent collaboration.

Today, they charge time and materials to perform routine tasks or research, and their customers will no longer be willing to pay for that. Going forward, they will need to perform this much faster and cheaper with AI, or they will charge fixed-price engagements, and using AI is just improving their margins.