Will Chatbots Replace Lawyers?
Most people regard lawyers as a necessary evil — usually more evil than necessary. Thankfully, the automation revolution will start replacing lawyers, just like it has already started replacing doctors, stock traders, retail workers, and most non-creative professions.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
- Ben Franklin
FlashLawyer is a free legal document builder has drafted over 10,000 free legal documents since January 2016. The average lawyer bills about $200 per hour, so that translates into at least $2,000,000 in saved legal fees for our users!
The current app is fine, but there are already tons of legal document generators out there — all running the same scheme. They walk users through long arduous HTML forms, then demand a credit card before delivering the goods. That’s lame at best, bait and switch at worst.
FlashLawyer combats this with two principles:
- Think Different
- Don’t be Evil
Maybe you recognize them. The basic idea is to provide a service that is innovative, while not ripping people off. Here’s the plan.
Chatbots that Replace Forms
The current pace of innovation Artificial Intelligence is scary, and it’s only just started to seep into web development. Amazon is currently hosting a Chatbot Hackathon that compels developers to use its serverless architecture, Lambda, and its natural language processing AI, Lex. This gave me the perfect reason to overhaul FlashLawyer into a chatbot-powered app.
The concept is simple. Rather than go through a multistep form, the Chatbot figures out which type of document you need, then walks you through it step-by-step. You might say “I’m selling my boat”, to which the bot responds “Sounds like you need a Boat Bill of Sale”, then starts a series of questions to get the document completed.
As you talk to the bot, it updates the legal document after each response and can be exported as a PDF at any time. No waiting, no credit cards, no tricks.
The Future of AI in the Legal System
So will chatbots actually replace lawyers? My chatbot can figure out which legal document a person needs and build it for them, but it’s far from comprehending the legal nuances of a highly skilled lawyer. The most critical skill for a lawyer is effective communication, both verbal and written, an area that AI still sucks at. Chatbots cannot (and may never) replicate the passion of a Johnny Cochran or the fire of Marcia Clark , traits that make great lawyers great. Regardless, I predict AI and predictive analytics will change the legal system in the following ways over the next 5 to 10 years.
- Chatbots will replace basic legal consulting and contract building.
- AI will replace corporate lawyers for fraud detection and compliance.
- AI will mine legal documents to analyze their intent and importance.
- AI will support trial lawyers by organizing evidence and making inferences from unstructured data.
- AI will predict legal outcomes based on case data.
- AI will support law enforcement by predicting crime patterns.
