Will law firms face extinction with digital disruption?

(Sept 4): In her keynote address at the recently held Future Lawyering Conference 2017, Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah quoted from the movie Terminator, likening the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) to the "rise of the machines". She joked that the millennials might not understand the 1980s reference.

Perhaps a more apt comparison, when assessing the threat that technology poses to the legal industry, is from the more current Game of Thrones. "Winter is coming" and the rise of AI is like the inexorable advance of the terrifying humanoid White Walkers.

NIGHT GATHERS
The tech tsunami that has disrupted the banking, retail, transport and hospitality sectors will not spare lawyers. Technology is already able to replace much of the repetitive legal work such as due diligence and standard contract drafting. Search engines will replicate the work of junior litigators who compile research and analyse likely dispute outcomes based on past cases.

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