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Alex Denne
Growth @ Ƶ | Introduction to Contracts @ UCL Faculty of Laws | Serial Founder

The 2024 Legal AI Retrospective:
Key Lessons from the Past Year

18th December 2024
2 mins
Text Link

The State of Legal AI

You can for this published on December 12th 2024, or find a link to each of the 92 sections as individual blog posts in the section 'Full list of sections' below.

I. Executive Summary

This report is the result of the extensive research, feedback, conversations and direct input from industry leaders. We extend our sincere gratitude to all who have contributed.

Where can I get the report?

You can download

Why another report on Legal AI?

We recognize that the majority of research into Legal AI falls into one of three categories.

• Written by legal journalists (simplified - often lacking in technical depth)

• Written by legal vendors (biased - often highlighting their own successes)

• Written by scholars, engineers and researchers - (academic - often more theoretical than practical)

This leaves a gap for deeper, unbiased, and more practice-oriented reporting, which we have worked hard
to fill.

Who should read this report?

This report provides in-house legal teams and law firms—particularly those in corporate and commercial law—with a valuable resource to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Legal AI

Our unique approach

As we are one of the longstanding vendors in this space, we have taken an unusual approach:

• We call out and applaud our competitors for their successes! (A rising tide lifts all boats, after all).

• We don't try and sell our products or services to you at any point.
(We are here to learn, just like everyone else).

Rather than attempting to distill the complex and far-reaching impact of AI into a few key findings, we instead invite you to explore the full breadth of 200+ insights, 100+ topics, 60+ cited studies and 30+
comments from industry leaders. All the references featured throughout this 50-page report are from 2024 where possible, and 2023 otherwise.

Report Structure

1. Key Areas of Legal AI Development, and their practical applications.
2. The Emerging Trends and Technologies, and their current limitations for legal use cases
(also, some prompt engineering tips for you).
3. Pros and Cons of Legal AI by Legal Team Type
(in-house counsel, Big Law, and small/solo law firms).

Our sincere hope

By engaging with the full range of topics and perspectives presented in this report, you will gain practical insights into implementing Legal AI effectively within your organization. You'll stay ahead of emerging trends, and understand the specific advantages and challenges to your legal team.

If you would like to join our panel of experts and contribute to upcoming reports, please reach out to us via community@genieai.co.

Sincerely,

Alex Denne, Head of Growth @ Ƶ

“AI's impact on legal practice and operations is undeniable and
transformative. It's not just about automating tasks; it's about leveraging technology to drive growth, enhance client services, and modernize law firms. As our law firm clients integrate AI into our strategic processes, we see significant improvements in efficiency and profitability. This is why I advocate for law firms to proactively evaluate and leverage these technologies. The future of legal
services is shaped by our ability to adapt and innovate, ensuring that we not only meet but exceed the evolving demands of our
clients and the market.”

Dan Safran, President and CEO, Unbiased Consulting LLC;
Adjunct, University of Illinois College of Law, USA

Full list of sections

  1. The 2024 Legal AI Retrospective:
Key Lessons from the Past Year
  2. Current state of Legal AI
  3. Brief history of AI in the legal sector
  4. Key Challenges and 2025 Outlook
  5. Key Areas of Legal AI Development
  6. Legal Chatbots and Client Engagement
  7. Key Applications of Legal AI
  8. Document review and contract analysis
  9. AI-Driven Legal Research and Knowledge Management
  10. AI in Due diligence and compliance
  11. Natural Language Processing in Legal Text Analysis
  12. AI in Contract Analysis
  13. AI-Enhanced Risk Assessment and Management
  14. Automated Regulatory Compliance Monitoring
  15. AI in Summarizing Legislation
  16. AI for Reacting to Legislative Changes
  17. AI for Data Privacy and Security Compliance
  18. Automated Due Diligence Reporting
  19. Automated trademark infringement monitoring
  20. AI-Assisted Legal Communications Drafting
  21. AI in Legal and contract drafting
  22. AI-Assisted Document Drafting
  23. Open Access and Open source Legal AI
  24. AI Contract Generators
  25. Multilingual Contract Drafting with AI
  26. AI-enhanced Contextual Clause Suggestions
  27. AI in Data Governance for Legal
  28. Changing of the guard
  29. Emerging Legal Editors and Drafting Tools
  30. Compliance Decisions
  31. IP Risk Assessment in Data Flows
  32. Data Usage Throughout the Legal Value Chain
  33. Multimodal AI Models for Legal
  34. Ethical AI and Bias Mitigation in Legal
  35. Large Language Models in Legal AI
  36. Multilingual NLP for Legal AI
  37. Efficient Training and Deployment of Legal AI
  38. Explainable AI in Legal Decision-Making
  39. Creating Explanations for New Types of Legal AI
  40. Evaluating XAI Methods in Legal AI
  41. Transformer Architecture Dominance in Legal NLP
  42. Supporting Multi-Dimensional Explainability in Legal AI
  43. Supporting Human-Centered Explanations in Legal AI
  44. Adjusting XAI Methods for Different Legal Contexts
  45. Mitigating Negative Impacts of XAI in Legal
  46. Improving Societal Impact of Legal XAI
  47. AI-Enhanced Contract Drafting, Review, and Analysis
  48. Contract Law and Democratizing of Market Standards
  49. Standardization of Contract Terms and Clauses with AI
  50. Available Legal AI Datasets
  51. Improving Current XAI Methods for Legal AI
  52. Emerging Trends and Technologies
  53. Defining Accuracy in Legal AI
  54. Challenges to the adoption of AI in contract law
  55. Prompt Engineering for Legal AI
  56. Advantages of Legal AI for In-house Teams
  57. Increased Efficiency: Time Savings for In-house Legal
  58. AI Becomes an In-house Alternative Legal Service Provider
  59. Increased Accuracy: More Data-driven Decisions In-house
  60. In-house Legal Teams: The Frontier of Legal AI Innovation
  61. AI Empowering Strategic Risk Management In-house
  62. Junior In-house Legal Roles Evolve into "AI Wranglers"
  63. Data Privacy and Security Concerns with Legal AI In-house
  64. Concerns and Limitations of Legal AI for In-house Teams
  65. Potential for Bias and Errors in Legal AI In-house
  66. Ethical Considerations and Accountability of Legal AI In-house
  67. AI Hallucinations and Reliability Issues In-house
  68. Advantages of Legal AI for Biglaw Firms
  69. Enhanced Client Value Through AI-Driven Productization at Biglaw
  70. Balancing Legal AI Adoption with Caution In-house
  71. Potential for Higher Margins and Competitive Advantage with AI at Biglaw
  72. AI Customization and Localization Opportunities for Biglaw
  73. In-House Development of Specialized AI Applications at Biglaw
  74. Ethical Implications of AI and Time Tracking at Biglaw
  75. Concerns and Limitations of Legal AI for Biglaw Firms
  76. Data Security and Client Confidentiality Concerns with Legal AI at Biglaw
  77. AI Enabling Product-Led Growth and Democratization of Legal Services at Biglaw
  78. Accuracy and Reliability of AI-Generated Legal Content at Biglaw
  79. AI Hallucinations and False Information in Legal AI at Biglaw
  80. Over Reliance on AI and Skill Atrophy at Biglaw
  81. Cultural Resistance and Shadow AI Usage at Biglaw
  82. Advantages of Legal AI for Small Law Firms and Sole Practitioners
  83. AI Enabling Expansion into New Practice Areas for Small Law Firms
  84. Enhanced Research Capabilities with AI for Small Law Firms
  85. Customized Document Generation with AI for Small Law Firms
  86. AI as Cost-Effective Alternative to Additional Staff for Small Law Firms
  87. Increased Productivity and Client Capacity with AI for Small Law Firms
  88. Concerns and Limitations of Legal AI for Small Law Firms and Sole Practitioners
  89. Limited AI Customization for Niche Practice Areas at Small Law Firms
  90. High Initial Costs and Implementation Challenges of AI for Small Law Firms
  91. Client Perception and Trust Issues with AI at Small Law Firms
  92. Industry-wide challenges

Interested in joining our team? Explore career opportunities with us and be a part of the future of Legal AI.

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