Over the years, technology has changed rapidly. It has an impact on all of us, meaning that professional sectors are influenced by technology as well. Each time a professional sector is faced with new technologies, questions related to how a particular technology will disrupt everyday tasks and operations arise. In this blog, the focus will be on law firms (lawyers), as artificial intelligence (AI) is said to have great influence on legal professions in different ways. More particularly, AI supplements what human beings do, and it can even be used for higher-level operations.

First of all, AI has the ability to analyze data and help to make better predictions about the consequences of legal proceedings, compared to humans. For example, if a client asks his/her lawyer a question like “If we decide to go to trial, how big is my chance to win?”, lawyers will be able to give more accurate answers by using AI. Secondly, AI (such as machines) can help improve the efficiency of analyzing and reviewing documents and decide whether they are relevant. Then, they can sort and find similar documents that are applicable as well. As machines are much faster compared to humans, this will save a lot of time in the legal sector. Thirdly, AI can contribute and help legal support employees to conduct their due diligence faster and more accurately. During this process, legal support employees have to search for background information for their clients. Usually, this work is considered as very tedious and time consuming. Therefore, AI can make this process more efficient. Lastly, Deloitte has mentioned that it is expected that by 2036, 100.000 legal professions will be automated.

I am wondering what you think of Deloitte’s statement. Also, what kind of impact will AI have on law firms in your opinion? Please let me know your thoughts and opinions!

Last year, Amazon opened its first Amazon Go store in Seattle, a physical grocery store specially made for Amazon customers. It has given Amazon users the ability to buy groceries in person instead of online. This type of store can be considered innovative compared to traditional grocery stores as there are no checkout lines at all. Customers enter the store by using the Amazon app, and then put their phones away to start grocery shopping. Everything they pick up is automatically added to, or removed from their virtual shopping cart. The Amazon Go store does not have any registers, meaning that customers can just leave the store without waiting in line. Everything will automatically be charged on the customer’s Amazon user account. Amazon calls this a “just walk out” technology, where the company is using computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion technologies to put this concept in place.

The Amazon Go store has several impacts on the retail industry. First of all, as Amazon Go relies on technologies such as computer vision, it will give competitors in the retail industry an incentive to speed up projects including Internet of Things as well. For example, it is said that Walmart is also working on a similar ‘Grab-and-go’ store for the near future. Secondly, even though retailers have to pay for set-up costs, the elimination of cashiers, card processing fees and registers will save them money in the long run. This means that, in the end, retailers will make more profit out of “just walk out” technology grocery stores.

However, there is still some doubt whether we, as consumers, are willing to accustom to such big changes. Are we ready to give up the status-quo? Let me know what you think! I would love to read some of your opinions.