“I think that a lot of it is AI is the shiny new toy, so everybody’s is focused on it. There’s lot of sensationalism. Most people don’t even know what AI is, much less what it can do,” said Cohen, who is also a fellow at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and has worked as a civil trial lawyer and managing partner at Finley Kumble. “I don’t think AI is going to replace lawyers wholesale. Will it perform certain high volume, relatively low value functions that lawyers presently do? I’m sure. It already it is. But ultimately are robots going to try cases? No. Will robots help with predicting outcomes? Likely so.”

In Susskind’s estimation, technological capabilities will inevitably lead to machines conducting increasingly more legal tasks “historically regarded as the unique preserve of legal practitioners.” In some ways, this is starting to happen: Law firms like DLA Piper are employing AI technology for due diligence in M&A work, while ROSS Intelligence, a legal research tool built on IBM Watson, is being adopted by firms like Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and Baker & Hostetler.

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