Youngstown Daily Legal News

Legal industry adjusting to growing prevalence of artificial intelligence

ELISSA COLLOPY
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 20, 2019

In this day and age, artificial intelligence is prevalent in many situations and is a hot topic of discussion in almost every industry.

A new study being released, the Blickstein Group Legal AP Efficacy Report, analyzes AI solutions in the legal tech market for how effective they are at solving problems.

This will be the first comprehensive review of AI-based legal technology companies, according to the group, which claims the legal field may be going about the question of AI all wrong.

"AI is a hot topic in legal technology, but the question gets asked in the wrong way," said Brad Blickstein, head of Blickstein group. "It's become a top-down thing: What are we doing about AI? It's like asking what are we doing about databases? It's a crazy question.

"The question should be, what problems do we have, how do we solve them, and is AI or some semblance of AI a potential solution for that?"

One group in Columbus agrees there is an ever evolving regulatory framework and legal issues for AI and machine learning.

Stevens Randol, a business and litigation firm, has AI attorneys advise on a range of AI issues, including data security and privacy, developer liability and AI liability.

The Blickstein Group report will aim to cover around 60 solutions in its first iteration and will be released later this year. Geared toward potential and current buyers of legal AI products, the report will be available via the Blickstein Group website.

Also leading the report is Erin Harrison, a veteran legal journalist of Legaltech News.

"It is a pivotal time to educate the market while also hopefully affecting the progress of legal AI from conception to implementation," she said.

She added that the primary goal of the report is to evaluate each technology based on effectiveness.

To help guide the report, Blickstein enlisted an advisory board of legal AI buyers, such as Jeff Marple, director of innovation for Liberty Mutual's legal department.

"A couple of years ago, we were beaten about the face and neck with the term AI," said Marple. "But as the buyers have become more educated and we've come to understand what artificial intelligence means, the very different facets of it and how it might be applied, I think you're getting more and more true product development as compared to technology development."

Blickstein also said he plans to make the report a living document, adding solutions and updating major changes quarterly.

According to the Blickstein Group, the report will include quantitative rankings based on efficacy; complete, detailed reviews of each tool designed to evaluate each on its ability to solve legal and business problems, including user interviews; and analysis across 10 technology catagories, including: billing/spend management, contract pre and post-execution, document management, e-discovery, expertise automation, legal research, litigation management, and predictive tools.

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