What are the Benefits of Generative AI?

This is the second of six articles in our series on GenAI use in practice.  We thank our contributing counsel for their responses: Denise Brunsdon (DB), Codie Chisholm (CC), Adam Drew, KC (AD), Katrina Edgerton-McGhan (KEM), Jennifer Hawkins (JH), Jivanya Reddy (JR), Ryan Robertson (RR), Marcus Sixta (MS), Dylan Snowdon (DS), Laura Warner (LW), and Jenna Weinkauf (JW).

Law Matters asked: “What do you see as the greatest benefit of GenAI so far?

DB: Responsible AI use can take some of the grind out of the practice of law, and lawyers and clients can share in the time and cost savings. I have more energy and brainpower to dedicate to strategy, judgment, and the client-specific advice that is the best use of a lawyer’s time.

CC: Its search capabilities are far superior to a general search or a Boolean or natural language search in legal research tools I have previously used.  However, the results are often under-inclusive. 

AD: The speed with which these tools can analyze lengthy or complex documents or find links between documents in a file is a massive time-saver.  I personally have found the greatest benefits so far to be: synthesizing complex files into outlines; reviewing written work by asking targeted questions like, “what are my strongest and weakest points?”; and editing correspondence for clarity and tone, or to strip out jargon.

KEM: The greatest benefit for me by far is its ability to locate evidence, materials and documents in very large files with much greater efficiency. I have matters that are many years old and contain 1000s of records.  With AI I can query the correspondence, documents and transcripts in a much more efficient way than I have ever been able to with any other tool. It saves hundreds of hours of work and improves the quality of the product.

For AI research tools, they are useful to provide a starting point and in identifying primary sources more efficiently.

JH: AI has helped us to become more efficient in summarizing participant evidence (a direct cost savings to clients), allowing us to focus on critical thinking and analysis when assessing credibility and making findings.

JR: The greatest benefit is its versatility. It can help with everything from developing video ideas and explaining legal concepts in plain language to reviewing social media analytics and understanding what information people are looking for. It helps me create more relevant and accessible content while using my time more effectively. 

RR: It can be a valuable second set of eyes in document review.  It helps us catch issues and consider alternatives.  The time needed to check Gen AI’s suggestions varies by task.

MS: AI can be great at increasing efficiency. Documents can be drafted almost instantaneously. Large volumes of materials can be reviewed quickly. Online search engines (including CanLii) using AI will provide more specific answers to inquiries, with hyperlinks to references included, which reduces research time.

DS: My experience testing various AI tools, agents, and assistants has shown very little benefit in my practice.  Our firm has tested AI tools for a wide variety of tasks, including reviewing large volumes of material to determine relevance and materiality, legal research, and automating tasks, but none of the results have shown notable improvements over non-AI tools.

LW: It can be good at summarizing, reviewing, brainstorming, and drafting. It depends though – I’ve found it to be hit and miss.

JW: The greatest benefit of using AI has been reducing time spent on basic tasks.  Those efficiency gains are commensurate with what I have typically seen in assigning tasks to a first-year lawyer.