Paralegals and an AI Future

Law firms and legal professionals should embrace AI, not as a distant future, but as an unfolding reality that demands engagement, exploration, and adaptation. There will be a number of considerable impacts across the industry, including the speeding up of response times, especially when summarising large swathes of information. A full adoption of dynamic contract management and automation capable of updating business intelligence or responding to changing risk factors will also be possible.

By 2025, the Gartner Market Databook predicts that 30% of organisations will be implementing AI-augmented strategies. This would lead to more sophisticated legal analytics and predictive modelling, improving the precision of predictions for case outcomes and of legal risk assessments. The integration of AI colleagues into work processes by 2026 will allow a collaborative working model where AI can assist in legal research, case preparation, and administrative tasks, enabling Lawyers to focus on higher-value activities. In 2027, the emergence of applications automatically generated by AI without human involvement will revolutionise legal software development, making custom solutions more accessible and affordable for law firms of all sizes.

• Prompting is Key

  In Paralegal jobs, the deployment of AI tools, will likely lead to work involving more nuanced business-led advice rather than collation and administration of data, plus there will be a focus on quality control and the optimisation and safeguarding of contractual arrangements. There’s also an opening for the current Paralegal job description to change, allowing professionals to up-skill and become expert legal “prompt writers” (used for effective training and deployment of legal AI).

  Prompt engineering is more than just a trend, it is a fundamental shift which is reshaping the way legal professionals interact with technology to enhance their work. Criticality, in law the stakes are high: a poorly constructed prompt could lead to misinterpretation or legal inaccuracy. Consider the example of an AI tool used for contract analysis. A well-designed prompt can help the tool not only identify key clauses and terms, but also understand their implications in different legal contexts. This capability transforms tasks such as contract review, due diligence and even legal research, saving countless hours while improving accuracy.

  Legal prompt engineering is a multidisciplinary field that requires a deep understanding of both law and AI. Mastering the field requires not only familiarity with legal terminology and concepts, but also an understanding of how AI models process and respond to language. This dual expertise can be challenging, but it is essential to the development of effective legal AI tools – and there is certainly an opportunity for Paralegals here.

• Should we be Worried?

  Where firms are using such tech, there are signs that increasing familiarity is not only helping them to use it effectively, but it is also overcoming any concern that the use of AI could in some way replace humans. It’s widely acknowledged that the power of AI would affect more than just Paralegal jobs.

  A human (Paralegal) interface with AI will be essential for the foreseeable future particularly in areas such as identifying AI “hallucination” of detail in responses and verifying outputs generated. For example, ChatGPT can be prone to “hallucinations” or inaccuracies. In one instance it falsely accused an American law professor of sexual harassment whilst citing a Washington Post report that didn’t exist. Chatbots are trained on a vast trove of data taken from the Internet, although the sources are not available in many cases. Operating like a predictive text tool, they build a model to predict the likeliest word or sentence to come after a user’s prompt. This means factual errors are possible, but the human-seeming response can sometimes convince users that the answer is correct.

  Paralegals could verify the identity of clients, catch fraudulent transactions and AI voiced phishing scams, and help identify where legal liability lies in the AI value chain: providers (creators) or deployers (users). AI cannot make these distinctions itself, Paralegals can.

• Preparing for an AI Future

  So, how can Paralegals prepare for a future with AI, what do they need to consider today to be ready for tomorrow?

  Paralegals developing their understanding of how automation can benefit a firm or in-house team will put them in a great position to lead the AI transition. It is worth remembering that it is often Paralegals who have the best insight into the day-to-day processes required to keep a practice running effectively.

  Those in Paralegal jobs are also well positioned to explore the opportunities that AI brings and therefore act as a vanguard of AI experts who understand where AI adoption will bring the most benefit, while also having an understanding of the limitations and pitfalls of the technology.

• Paralegal Jobs on TotallyLegal

  Start utilising AI in your next position and begin your application process today. Apply for the latest Paralegal jobs in London or sign up to the TotallyLegal job alerts to receive leading legal jobs directly to your inbox. You can also visit the TotallyLegal careers advice page to learn how to use AI to amplify your job search.

• About the Author

  Robin Ghurbhurun sits on the Governing Board of the National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP). NALP is a non-profit membership body and the only paralegal body that is recognised as an awarding organisation by Ofqual (the regulator of qualifications in England).

  Web: http://www.nationalparalegals.co.uk