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In 1943, Thomas Watson, then-president of IBM, predicted the world only needed five computers. Of course, that's laughable today, but that's only thanks to hindsight. And while predicting the future is still not an exact science, when it comes to technology in the legal industry, some people are getting pretty close.

I recently asked some of my peers for their legal tech predictions for 2019. I spoke to Andrew Arruda, CEO and co-founder of ROSS Intelligence; Mark Cohen, CEO of LegalMosaic; and David Curle, Director, Technology and Innovation Platform, Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute—three legal leaders with their eyes on the future of law.

They all came to the same conclusion: The legal industry has made great strides in embracing technology, but there are still some hurdles to overcome.

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The First Hurdle: Delivering on Expectations

When I talk to firms, whether big or small, I consistently hear that as client expectations evolve, forward-thinking firms will be looking for ways to deliver high quality work to clients efficiently, using a combination of the right people, processes and technology. Which is great. But of course it isn't without its challenges.

One challenge, says Cohen, is that there is a marked divide between what consumers want from legal providers and what they get. “The focus in 2019 needs to be on ways that technology can be applied to advance client objectives and make legal services more accessible, efficient and affordable.”

Providing technological solutions for clients is about more than a firm being on the cutting edge. “Competitive lawyers and firms need to continue to adopt tools using artificial intelligence (AI) to outperform their competition and deliver higher value to their clients,” says Arruda. “In 2019, AI will continue to have the largest adoption rates in the industry and that is no surprise, as AI has continued to improve and is capable of more than ever.”

Lawyers are definitely looking for ways to find key information quickly in large volumes of data and they want technology that automates routine tasks or reduces risk.

But, adds Cohen, “Technology is not a panacea. However, when it comes to the gap between what customers want and what legal firms deliver, its thoughtful deployment that can help bridge that gap.”

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The Second Hurdle: Understanding the Impact of AI

One of the biggest obstacles to embracing technology, says Cohen, is that many lawyers still see technology as a threat to their economic model. “They see it as a billable hour killer,” he says. “That's short-sighted, of course, especially in an age of digital transformation.”

That's why Curle believes the technologies that will have the most impact in 2019 are those centered around more mundane aspects of automation, such as the various forms of document automation and contract lifecycle management. “The low-hanging fruit in legal tech is simply taming unruly processes and making them faster and more valuable to clients with the help of automation,” he says.

I think that to overcome this hurdle, firms need to make sure they don't misunderstand AI's capabilities. The speed at which these technologies are evolving can lead to firms underinvesting in time spent trying out new tech that could significantly impact the way they do business.

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The Third Hurdle: Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

The third, and biggest, hurdle for 2019 is for law firms to change their culture and embrace technology.

“The biggest issue we have in law is the culture in firms around technology and its adoption,” says Arruda. “This means no matter how amazing the technology gets, adoption will lag if a culture of innovation doesn't exist. Firms have to buy in from the leadership down and get behind the new technologies available. Law firms and lawyers should be focusing on how to best enable a culture that celebrates the use of technology to streamline and improve their practices.”

Perhaps it's the fear of the unknown. Curle believes some firms liken AI to the Wizard of Oz of legal tech, portrayed as an all-powerful force that will take over legal practice. “Those brave enough to take a peek behind the curtain soon realize that AI is a set of capabilities that will change legal practice in a much more measured, incremental way. AI will be, and already is, embedded in many of the products lawyers already use.”

The hurdle, says Cohen, is getting over the pervasive zero-sum mentality that it's either lawyers or robots. “That too is misguided,” he says. “Law is now about collaboration of human resources as well as humans and machines. Many still regard tech as a necessary evil rather than a means to the end of providing customer-centric delivery.”

Curle adds that most firms don't see the value embedded in their data, nor do they know how to release its insights about profitability, individual performance and pricing best practices. “The winning firms will tame their data, integrate it with externally-sourced data and use technology to leverage it for better decisions.”

While there may be hurdles, I don't believe they're insurmountable. In fact, there's so much upside for firms to embrace technology. And for the ones that do, they will be most likely and most able to leverage tech's capabilities to create new lines of business. Certainly any firm's goal no matter the year.

Laura van Wyngaarden is an entrepreneur and expert in artificial intelligence and legal technology. She's the COO of Diligen, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company transforming the way lawyers review contracts and a pioneer in the LegalTech space. Laura is passionate about the connection between technology and human work, seeking to identify and explore innovative ways to reduce time and improve the accuracy of human tasks.