Delivering AI legal services to Asian clients is proving to be challenging. However, in the long run, AI will have a big impact on the legal market, according to Baker McKenzie Partner and Chief Innovation Officer Ben Allgrove in an interview with Law.com. Ben said that the Firm’s AI approach is “deliberately not product-based”. Instead, the Firm focuses on three main strands: increasing productivity tools for lawyers; using function-specific vertical tools such as the IP Solution; and creating bespoke client solutions.
However, Asia presents some challenges. "One of the challenges, especially with AI research tools, is that the offerings are jurisdictionally limited, and this particularly impacts Asia Pacific because a lot of the vendors don’t have as broad a coverage in the region."
Obtaining the relevant data in the region to train the AI system is also proving to be more difficult.
“If you take Japan for example, a lot of the precedents aren’t in machine-readable format,” Kensaku Takase, partner and group leader of the IP tech group in the Tokyo office, added. “Unlike in the U.S., access to case files by the general public is still very limited in Japan.” In addition, Japanese courts will often encourage parties to settle cases, Takase said. Therefore, legal AI tool developers end up with situations where the precedent value is unclear, which is not conducive to training AI.
Despite these challenges, Ben expects AI adoption will pick up pace as more firms and clients do more work on data and infrastructure. "This new wave of technologies is going to be impactful in the legal market," Ben said. "We are already packaging the technology into custom client offerings.”
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However, Asia presents some challenges. "One of the challenges, especially with AI research tools, is that the offerings are jurisdictionally limited, and this particularly impacts Asia Pacific because a lot of the vendors don’t have as broad a coverage in the region."
Obtaining the relevant data in the region to train the AI system is also proving to be more difficult.
“If you take Japan for example, a lot of the precedents aren’t in machine-readable format,” Kensaku Takase, partner and group leader of the IP tech group in the Tokyo office, added. “Unlike in the U.S., access to case files by the general public is still very limited in Japan.” In addition, Japanese courts will often encourage parties to settle cases, Takase said. Therefore, legal AI tool developers end up with situations where the precedent value is unclear, which is not conducive to training AI.
Despite these challenges, Ben expects AI adoption will pick up pace as more firms and clients do more work on data and infrastructure. "This new wave of technologies is going to be impactful in the legal market," Ben said. "We are already packaging the technology into custom client offerings.”
Read the full article here (Subscription access required)
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