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The Disruption: The Year Legal Tech Took Center Stage

Technology is by no means new to the practice of law. But historically, for those outside the immediate legal tech bubble, the drive to implement tech and innovation into legal processes was more nascent than top-of-mind.

All that changed in late 2022–specifically on Nov. 30 when OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT—even if the industry didn’t realize it at the time.

Once what would come to be commonly known as generative AI hit the mainstream and became part of the Zeitgeist, even those in law who had long ignored legal tech were keenly interested in how it could be used for legal.

Suddenly, legal tech was cool.

The Conversation

For many who started to embrace generative AI for personal use, ChatGPT soon became a shorthand for all technology that fell under the generative AI umbrella. Legal, however, quickly came to realize the importance of distinguishing between the two, and began diving even deeper to understand the nuances of different large language models (LLMs).

The path to that understanding, however, had its ups and downs. As with any disruptive technology, generative AI went through a few phases in legal. Initially there was a lot of hype, not always grounded in anything empirical, as players across the legal ecosystem rushed to implement generative AI into their tools and workflows.

The hype from some was met by an equal amount of fear and skepticism from others. For an industry that is notoriously risk-averse, the promise of new technology that seemed like magic was too good to be true. Generative AI also emerged against a background of past popular new technologies that had failed to deliver.

As the months went on, however, the industry started to come together to have mature conversations about how generative AI could impact and improve the performance and delivery of legal services. Often, these conversations took the form of collaboration amongst parties who have long been competitors.

Through a fair amount of trial and error, generative AI showed its ability to solve real legal problems. The focus on finding and proving out real-world use cases is now in full swing.

The Significance

Whether or not the reputation was deserved across the board, the legal industry has long been known to be behind the curve when it comes to technology adoption. With something as revolutionary as generative AI, the industry can no longer afford to be late movers who take a wait-and-see approach.

Generative AI is already touching nearly every aspect of the legal industry. As developers and users continue to experiment with more use cases, its applicability will only grow. From administrative tasks to assisting with the performance of high-level legal work, we will eventually hit a point where failing to use generative AI, or at least consider it, will be unacceptable in terms of efficiency, competitive advantage and more.

Moreover, while generative AI is the tech story of 2023, its implications run deeper. One of the biggest impacts of generative AI in legal so far that has gotten less attention is that its “cool factor” stirred up a more general interest in technology that had been long overdue.

Generative AI’s entrance onto the legal scene ignited a larger sense of tech curiosity and awareness across the industry. The questions may have started as, “How do we use AI for that?” The answers, however, were often that we didn’t need AI for that. In fact, we’d had tech capabilities for a while now that could solve many of legal’s biggest problems—a lot of people were either just not paying attention or still too resistant to change to realize it.

As we close out 2023, the legal industry is seeing an unprecedented technology renaissance. Years down the road, when we look back, we will see this as a year that forever changed how we practice law—ultimately for the better.

The Information

Want to know more? Here's what we've discovered in the ALM Global Newsroom:

• 2023: A Legal AI Odyssey

• Tracking Generative AI: How Evolving AI Models Are Impacting Legal

• The Artificial Intelligence Glossary

• GPT 101: Decoding ChatGPT's Generative AI for Legal Professionals

• Legal Enters Full Education Mode as Generative AI Strengthens Its Hold on the Industry

• Legal Gets Candid About How Gen AI Is Actually Being Used

• White House's AI Executive Order Opens the Door Wide to New Rules, Enforcement Actions 

 The Forecast

It was a roller coaster year for technology and innovation, but the legal industry has come out on the other end wiser for the experience and ready to embrace generative AI in a thoughtful, meaningful way to improve the profession.

While 2023 was indeed a seminal year in legal technology, we’re only just getting started. Generative AI technology continues to develop at a breakneck pace. What seemed impressive this past year will soon be table stakes.

Much of the past year’s developments were dominated by OpenAI, but now there are a number of competitors who are catching up and are poised to create significant disruption. And with the recent release of Google’s long-anticipated Gemini AI model, the game will potentially be turned on its head yet again.

Legal technology in 2024 will likely be the best we’ve seen yet.

Stephanie Wilkins is the Editor-in-Chief of Legaltech News. Contact her at swilkins@alm.com and follow her on LinkedIn.