Why I can’t tell you which AI tool you should use

Newsletter Issue 5

If you’ve found your way to this newsletter, you may be wondering which AI tool I would recommend for your law practice. I really wish I could tell you which tool would be best - but I can’t answer that for you right now. And I’d encourage you to be skeptical of anyone who tells you they know what AI tool your law practice needs without doing a deep dive into your organization’s unique needs.

Here are three reasons why:

AI Tools are Not One Size Fits All

You may be a trial lawyer. Or maybe you’re an in-house lawyer, or a legal aid lawyer, or a government lawyer, or a maritime lawyer. You may be a solo practitioner or work for a large organization or anywhere in between. Your organization may be tech savvy…or it may not be. Your practice is unique, and the AI tools on the market reflect that diversity – they are not one size fits all. I’ve identified 50+ ways lawyers can use AI and compiled a directory of over 150 AI tools created for the legal industry. Some AI tools specialize in one function, while others offer a number of capabilities. Some AI tools operate independently, while others are designed to integrate with technology you may already use like Microsoft Word. The AI tool most helpful to your organization might be different than the tool that is most helpful to your biggest competitor. Each organization has its own culture surrounding technology and unique technology solution needs. The best tool for your organization will be the one that offers the right mix of problem(s) solved by the tool, quality of the tool, ease of use, security protections, and cost.

There are SO Many New AI tools, and the Market Currently Lacks Consensus as to Which Tools are “Best”

As I mentioned above, there are more than 50 ways lawyers can use AI and over 150 AI tools for the legal industry. While some of the AI tools were built by pre-existing legal tech companies with other offerings, most of the AI tools are new to the market, which means that independent reviews of these new tools are currently scarce. Figuring out how to use AI in your practice is a wildly different undertaking than selecting another legal technology tool such as law firm management software, where you’ve already established at least a rough idea of what you want the software to do, and your options are largely provided by established, industry-vetted software providers, with abundant online reviews to peruse. Venture capital funding of some legal industry AI tools offers insight as to which tools investors think are best, but doesn’t provide you with enough information to select an AI tool. With so many AI tool options emerging in a short period of time, the way to find the best solution for your unique organization is to first clarify which problem(s) you want to solve with AI.    

Your jurisdictional requirements may impact which AI tools you wish to use.

The AI guidance available to lawyers varies depending on the jurisdiction. The ABA and some state bar associations have issued guidance, and some courts and judges have issued orders on disclosure of AI use by lawyers. All appear to be grappling with how to make rules in relation to rapidly changing technology, or whether new rules are even necessary. Some judges have issued orders requiring broad disclosure of AI use in the preparation of court filings (such as disclosing all AI use, not just use of generative AI tools), and some bar associations have taken the position that clients should give informed consent for AI use in their cases. And in at least one instance, a court has banned the use of legal research AI tools in the preparation of court filings, except for AI tools embedded in what it characterized as “the standard on-line legal research sources Westlaw, Lexis, FastCase, and Bloomberg[.]” [1] 

For all these reasons, I can’t tell you what AI tool is best for you.

But you can.

The first step for any lawyer who wants to explore using AI is to develop your foundational knowledge about AI and its capabilities, limitations, and pitfalls. I encourage you to make sure you understand your professional responsibilities in relation to AI before you start using AI for legal applications.

The next step is to better understand your organization’s technology problems. Where is technology currently serving the people of your organization well, and where is there room for improvement? Is there work performed in your organization that routinely gets written off? What tasks are repetitive? What tasks can be streamlined? What work could be performed more consistently and accurately with technology? Where would a new technology tool make the biggest financial impact? How receptive are the people of your organization to new technology? What kind of support will they need to be successful in adopting new technology? These considerations are a good starting point.

Once you understand your organization’s technology problems, you’ll be in a good position to match those problems with the solutions currently available from AI tools. Once you know what you want an AI tool to do, you can use the directory of AI tools for lawyers in A Lawyer's Practical Guide to AI as a starting point to quickly narrow down the available options and select one or more tools to evaluate further for compatibility with your organization.

That’s how you figure out which AI tool you should use.

Thanks for being here.

Jennifer
Good Journey Consulting

[1] In re: Use of Artificial Intelligence, 1, United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division (2024), https://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/Standing%20Order%20In%20Re-%20Use%20of%20Artificial%20Intelligence2.pdf.