Speed.

Speed has to be the most significant benefit of using AI tools for legal work. Because time is something every legal professional wishes they had more of, especially in modern law firms and legal departments with the ever-growing amounts of digital legal information they now have to sift through. Traditionally, time has always been the limiting factor in so much of legal practice. The ability to take on more cases, dive deeper into legal research, or devote more attention to every client has often been constrained by the sheer number of hours required to accomplish the essential legal tasks. But with emerging legal AI tools, many tasks that used to take days or weeks can now be accomplished in minutes or hours. And that has profound implications for the types of cases that become viable, the level of service that’s possible, and the accessibility of the legal system as a whole.

But there’s also a host of other downstream impacts to a faster and more capable lawyer. From expanding access to underrepresented communities to being able to take on more and serve your customers better, AI is an major agent of change in the legal field; taking advantage of even a single legal AI tool can lead to significant gains.

Unprecedented speed

Let's start with deposition summaries.  For anyone in the legal industry, turning mountains of legal documents - like long, arduous depositions - into usable summaries is a necessary task that can’t be hurried without sacrificing accuracy. And before AI solutions, this task often fell to junior legal professionals or paralegals, demanding hours of painstaking review and synthesis.

However, with the power of the best ai tools, you can now feed those same deposition transcripts into an AI tool like CaseMark and receive fully formed case summaries, page-line summaries, or even richly detailed narrative summaries—all in minutes. Need a different format or perspective? No problem, generate another one, and another one after that. AI legal research tools don’t get tired, they don’t complain, and they are available 24/7.

These new AI workflows allow progressive legal teams to operate at a different pace entirely. Suddenly, what was once a significant bottleneck in the life of a case becomes just another task to be checked off the list. Having your legal team spot check a summary that was ready in 5 minutes compared to a weekend makes everyone a lot happier.

Accuracy and insight

Of course, speed is only truly valuable if it comes paired with accuracy. AI legal assistant tools that can do contract analysis or summarize a lengthy legal document have proven to be more accurate than humans, especially when dealing with piles of similar legal data, or researching for examples of case law that may or may not exist.

Think about legal research, for instance. Traditionally, uncovering the right legal precedent or finding that needle-in-a-haystack case that makes all the difference has been as much a matter of luck as skill. Even the most experienced lawyers are limited by the time and resources available to sift through countless legal databases and documents.  

AI legal research tools can rapidly analyze vast quantities of legal data, identifying relevant information, statutes, and precedents with a level of comprehensiveness that simply isn’t possible for humans. And in addition to finding information faster, they can uncover hidden connections and valuable insights that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. And in the legal sector, where even small details can have major consequences, this advantage can’t be overstated.

Expanding access

These advances in speed and efficiency have benefits beyond making life easier for lawyers – they’re also able to transform access to legal services in significant ways. By reducing the time and costs associated with essential legal tasks, AI technology can help bridge the justice gap and make quality legal advice more accessible to a wider range of people and businesses.

In smaller communities or for specialized areas of law practice, finding a qualified lawyer can be difficult and expensive. AI solutions can help address this by enabling existing legal teams to handle larger caseloads and provide services to a wider geographic area without sacrificing quality. This means more people can get the legal representation they need, regardless of where they live or the specifics of their case.

Similarly, consider the challenges faced by historically underserved communities. Language barriers, for example, can be a significant obstacle for those seeking legal help. But with AI-powered translation tools, communication hurdles can be overcome, allowing legal professionals to serve non-native speakers more effectively. These technologies can translate legal documents, facilitate real-time interpretation during consultations, and even help tailor legal writing to be more culturally sensitive and accessible.

Furthermore, the affordability that AI brings to law firms can have a direct impact on those who could previously not afford quality legal help. By streamlining processes and automating tasks, AI allows lawyers to offer more competitive rates and potentially take on cases that would have been financially unfeasible before.

The impact of AI on the legal profession is only just beginning. As generative AI tools and other AI software solutions continue to evolve, we can expect even more innovative applications that further streamline legal work, enhance accuracy, and expand access to justice. For law firms and legal professionals looking to thrive in the years ahead, embracing these emerging but transformative tools will be essential. The future of law is being shaped by AI, and the benefits are there for those who are ready to use them.

Try your first AI-powered legal summary for free.