Transforming Legal Industry Workflows with Intelligent Document Processing

Published in

NeuralSpace

5 min readJun 15, 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a transformative effect on the legal industry, with the pace of adoption accelerating in the past year. The advent of AI-powered document processing has been game-changing for the sector, enabling firms to remain competitive by achieving faster information retrieval and review of documents, enhanced productivity and significant cost savings. In this article, we’ll explore the impact of intelligent automation from the legal industry’s paper problem, to the benefits of this cutting-edge technology and real-world use cases.

The Paper Problem

Although paper is still widely used in the legal sector, documents are increasingly archived in the cloud or on an on-premise server. However, a large number of documents are still processed inefficiently. Extracting and aggregating information from legal documents is incredibly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human error. According to a study by McKinsey, legal professionals spend an average of 60% of their time on administrative tasks, including document review and research. These manual processes not only lead to significant costs but also contribute to delays in case proceedings.

Legal professionals spend an average of 60% of their time on administrative tasks, including document review and research.

Understanding Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) is a cutting-edge technology that utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate the processing of unstructured data from various documents, such as contracts, legal documents, and forms, as well as emails and invoices. The technology allows law firms to automate document processing and classification using machine learning algorithms, enabling faster data access, enhanced accuracy rates, and reduced error margins.

Intelligent Document Processing cuts document processing time by up to 50%

To learn more about how IDP works, check out our recent blog: Intelligent Document Processing (IDP): The Ultimate Guide

Benefits

Increased efficiency

Automated document processing can speed up the processing, review, search and analysis of large volumes of documents by 50%, allowing lawyers to save time and focus on other tasks.

Improved accuracy

AI-powered document processing tools can be trained to identify and extract information from documents, reducing the risk of human error. Our technology can achieve up to 99.5% accuracy and highlight instances that might require a human check.

Reduced costs

Automating document review and analysis reduces the amount of time lawyers spend on routine processes.

Better insights

By using advanced analytics and language AI, the solution helps lawyers to gain deeper insights into the information contained in documents, such as identifying key concepts, relationships, and patterns.

Real-World Applications of IDP in Legal Firms

Law firms across the world have adopted IDP solutions to enhance their document processing operations. According to estimates by Gartner, the adoption of AI technologies in the legal industry is expected to increase by 43% in the next three years and intelligent automation is going to be a significant driver for this. Let’s take a look at how IDP is transforming legal document workflows.

The adoption of AI technologies in the legal industry is expected to increase by 43% in the next three years.

Legal Research and Due Diligence

IDP can assist in comprehensive legal research and due diligence tasks by leveraging its ability to analyze vast databases of case law, statutes, and legal precedents. Through advanced algorithms, IDP can efficiently extract relevant information and provide concise summaries, significantly reducing the time and effort required for legal research. IDP enables legal researchers to uncover valuable insights and identify patterns that may have been missed through traditional manual research methods.

Contract Analysis and Review

Contract analysis and review is one area that has significantly benefited from the adoption of IDP solutions. By automatically extracting crucial contractual information and generating insights into contract compliance, law firms can streamline their contract review procedures efficiently.

For example, IDP solutions can help law firms to identify and extract key terms and clauses from contracts, such as payment terms, termination clauses, and confidentiality provisions. These solutions can also flag potential compliance issues, such as non-compliance with data protection regulations or breaches of anti-corruption laws. Moreover, IDP solutions can help law firms to compare different versions of contracts and identify changes made to the original document. This feature can be particularly useful in cases where parties dispute the terms of a contract or where a contract is subject to negotiation.

Client Onboarding and Compliance

Client onboarding is a crucial aspect of legal practice that involves understanding clients’ business activities and complying with legal regulations. IDP solutions can efficiently process compliance documentation, including KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) documents, leading to enhanced client onboarding experiences. For example, IDP solutions can help law firms to verify the identity of clients and conduct background checks to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering regulations.

E-Discovery and Litigation Support

E-discovery and litigation support refer to the processes involved in identifying, collecting, preserving, reviewing, and producing electronically stored information in legal matters. IDP solutions can significantly improve these processes by automating document processing tasks and reducing the high costs and time-consuming procedures that are usually involved.

For instance, IDP solutions can help law firms to quickly and accurately identify relevant documents and information in large volumes of data. These solutions can also assist lawyers in reviewing and analyzing the information, as well as producing the information in a format that is admissible in court.

According to a study by Gartner, AI-assisted e-discovery can reduce the time and cost of document review by up to 80%, expediting the discovery process and aiding in building a strong case.

In addition, IDP solutions can help law firms to manage the complex workflows involved in e-discovery and litigation support, such as document collection, review, and production. These solutions can automatically track and manage the progress of each task, ensuring that deadlines are met and that the process is completed efficiently and effectively.

Conclusion

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) is transforming the legal industry by empowering legal professionals with advanced tools to streamline their workflows, improve accuracy, and enhance decision-making. From legal research and contract analysis to e-discovery and compliance, AI-powered technology is enabling law firms to automate manual administrative tasks, so teams can focus on more meaningful work. As AI continues to evolve, we expect to see wide-spread adoption across the sector, with legal professionals harnessing its capabilities to deliver a better service for customers and stakeholders, improve access to justice, and drive overall efficiency in the legal system.