Law ahead of other sectors in AI adoption and ambition

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Tyler: legal CIOs not so worried about Skynet

The use of artificial intelligence is more widespread in the law than in other sectors, and IT chiefs see more applications for it in the future, a survey has found.

It said that 55% of senior IT decision makers in law firms have adopted predictive coding and 48% machine learning technologies, compared to 30% and 38% respectively in non-legal sectors.

According to the study of 100 IT specialists in law firms and 100 in other industries conducted by IT company CenturyLink, 76% of legal chief information officers (CIOs) believed that AI would be capable of operating without supervision within the next decade, compared to 60% of non-legal CIOs.

Legal CIOs also have a firm understanding of liability that coincides with the adoption of AI technology, it said – 73% of legal CIOs believed that machines would eventually be held liable for their own errors, compared to just 47% of non-legal CIOs.

However, legal IT staff were also more conscious of possible problems caused by AI, with 62% citing concerns over errors in any work performed by artificial intelligence and automation systems. Similarly, 49% were worried about the results of work by AI systems in producing irrelevant results, compared to 34% of CIOs in non-legal industries.

“IT staff in legal industries have a forward-thinking and well-reasoned attitude to artificial intelligence and automation technologies,” said Jamie Tyler, head of digital transformation at CenturyLink.

“CIOs in the legal industry seem to have a more in-depth understanding of both the capabilities and limitations of predictive coding, machine learning and artificial intelligence systems compared to CIOs generally across all sectors.

“They are well ahead of their peers and are approaching AI in a systematic, pragmatic fashion. This is validated by the fact that only 12% of legal CIOs are worried about AI eventually taking over the planet, compared to 17% of panicky CIOs in other industries.”