Terminology matters when trying to interest people in new products or developments. The expression “artificial intelligence” has the potential to put people off, not least the lawyers, who pride themselves on their own application of intelligence to business problems.
The reality is that a few computer applications, particularly in business and legal business, are capable of performing the whole function expected of lawyers. It is better, perhaps, to think in terms of AI as meaning “augmenting intelligence”.
The human element remains important – I moderated a whole panel at Technology in Practice in Toronto on the subject of the continuing and important role of humans both as clients and as the doers of work.
Nuix has a webinar on this subject on 17 January at 3 PM GMT which says this about automation technology:
While machines now perform many tasks much more rapidly and efficiently than people, they still lack that uniquely human ability to apply relevant knowledge, experience, objectivity and creativity to their findings.
The requirement is to strike a balance between human expertise and machine learning. This is the aim of Stuart Clarke, head of security and intelligence solutions at Nuix who is leading the webinar.