How AI is Changing Legal Due Diligence

With the introduction of artificial intelligence to the legal sector over the past few years, this technology has been gradually changing the way that legal due diligence is conducted. Exploring these trends, in conjunction with Mergermarket, we spoke with five experts from the fields of law and technology to share their insights on the day-to-day use of artificial intelligence in legal due diligence and how this might continue to develop.

Points of discussion include:

• Software solutions have allowed for greater efficiency in legal due diligence processes. Typical pain points associated with legal due diligence include the amount of time needed to both compile and review countless documents. AI can prove a useful tool to help streamline this process. However, there are limits to what current technologies can achieve.
• Emerging AI technology is met with increasing enthusiasm. Law firms are showing willingness to adopt AI processes into their practices. While this is not yet universal, some clients are beginning to expect law firms to use tech-enabled processes and be able to offer innovative solutions.
• Is AI causing permanent changes to the legal workforce? While the fears that AI technology would automate job roles, and lead to mass redundancies in legal firms proved unfounded, it is true that adoption of these technologies could lead to major changes in the legal sector. It is unlikely that the need for new lawyers will ever be fully eliminated – rather that the nature of their work may change, as AI technologies allow lawyers to shift their focus to higher-value work.