AI Document Review: How Legal Teams Can Utilize Artificial Intelligence in Ediscovery
With the dawn of ChatGPT and the introduction of AI technology into the mainstream, law firms are looking to use these advanced systems to their benefit. And with good cause. AI legal document review is a transformative technology that has the potential to revolutionize the legal industry.
Through the power of generative AI, legal professionals now have the ability to accelerate the document review process, build out thorough summaries, create custom queries, and more. It helps save time and money for both law firms and clients, improving efficiency and bringing more work in-house during the ediscovery process.
Ediscovery software platforms have been able to leverage this generative AI technology to take the headache out of many manual processes, improving the way justice is done.
What Is AI Document Review?
AI-powered document review is a process that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze and categorize large volumes of electronic documents based on their relevance to a legal case. This process is often used in ediscovery, which involves finding and reviewing electronically stored information (ESI) for use as evidence in legal proceedings.
The functionality of AI document review has increased along with the proliferation of AI technology and systems, with more legal teams incorporating it into their operations. It can now produce document summaries, search through complex file types, surface relevant documents, and more. Many ediscovery software platforms are now experimenting with their own generative AI technology and incorporating it into the document review process, meaning the capabilities of these systems will only continue to evolve.
For example, the EverlawAI Assistant is currently being utilized by several organizations as part of a closed beta. It has features like document review, writing assistance, and more which can help attorneys get to the heart of the matter, faster.
How Does AI Document Review Work?
AI document review uses machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and relationships between documents, grouping similar documents together and identifying relevant information quickly. Document analysis can offer insight into communication patterns between parties, ensure quality assurance, and help gain knowledge on what a document contains before reading through it.
These AI document review systems can typically translate documents that are in different languages, process a range of file types and document sizes, and automate administrative tasks to help save time. Despite only having been around for a short time, AI document review has already established itself as the future of the ediscovery process.
Types of AI Document Review
AI document review can primarily be done in two ways: through technology assisted review (TAR) and generative AI. While TAR has been the predominant document review technology since its introduction, generative AI is widely recognized as the future.
TAR
TAR is the most established form of document review technology currently available. It offers attorneys a fast, reliable way to review documents, and its use is accepted by many courts during the ediscovery process. That said, while it has become a useful tool, there are also some shortcomings as well.
For example, TAR can only review documents that are text-heavy, such as word documents and emails. In today’s digital age, with data like text messages and videos frequently becoming part of ediscovery, it falls short when reviewing many data types.
Generative AI
Generative AI is still emerging as an established technology, but it’s already being incorporated by many legal teams to assist with document review. By using machine learning algorithms, it can learn as you go along, surfacing the most relevant information faster, and providing document summaries as well. It also has the ability to review any type of data, from video calls to Slack messages, and can perform a number of tasks outside of document review as well.
Since generative AI technology is still developing, it isn’t as widely accepted in courts as TAR. As the technology continues to evolve, however, it’s becoming more and more legitimized, and widespread adoption is just a matter of time.
How Lawyers Can Utilize AI Document Review
Incorporating AI document review into your daily legal practice can look different depending on your legal team and the type of work you do. There are several ways that lawyers can utilize these systems to improve and streamline their workflow.
Ediscovery
AI document review can be used to automate the ediscovery process, which involves finding and reviewing ESI for use as evidence in legal proceedings. By automating this process, lawyers can save time and money while ensuring that they have access to all relevant information.
This also has the benefit of lowering litigation costs, which have ballooned alongside the sharp rise in potentially discoverable data. Not only can this help firms save money, but it can also help increase access to litigation itself, which many smaller firms get priced out of due to high costs during the ediscovery process.
Document Summaries
Creating summaries of legal documents is another great benefit of this technology, which makes it easier for lawyers to review large volumes of information quickly. These summaries can be used to identify key data points and relevant information, allowing lawyers to focus on the most important aspects of a case.
Document Drafting
In addition to creating document summaries, AI document review can help with drafting documents as well. For example, it can create statements of facts or deposition summaries, complete with citations to supporting documents built in. It’s a great resource to help get you started on writing compelling arguments.
Case Narratives
AI document review is important for assisting with case narratives, which provide a summary of the facts and issues involved in a legal case. These narratives can be used to help lawyers prepare for trials and other legal proceedings, and offer valuable insights into certain aspects of a case.
AI Document Review Best Practices
To get the most out of AI document review, it is important to follow some best practices. These can help ensure the technology is being used responsibly while providing maximum value for both attorneys and clients. Although AI tools can help with a lot of tasks, they need to be utilized the right way to reach their full potential.
Set Clear Guidelines
It’s important to set clear guidelines for the use of AI document review, including what types of documents should be reviewed and how the results should be evaluated.
Refine Your Search
To get the most accurate results, you need to refine your search parameters to ensure that you are only reviewing relevant documents.
Evaluate Results
Evaluate the results of AI document review to ensure they are accurate and relevant. The decision-making processes of some of these systems are impressive, however they’re also still prone to mistakes.
Check the Work
Although AI systems often provide a comprehensive work product, it’s still important to look over the AI document review to perform due diligence and ensure it is accurate and complete. This can be done by reviewing the results manually and comparing them to the original documents.
How the EverlawAI Assistant Can Transform Your Legal Practice
EverlawAI Assistant is a comprehensive AI solution that goes a step further than other options on the market. It helps lawyers leverage the power of AI to streamline their work and improve efficiency through a number of different features.
EverlawAI Assistant features AI document review to automate administrative tasks, create document summaries, and provide case narratives. It also has the ability to answer open-ended questions with direct citations, create statements of facts, summarize thousands of pages and data sets at once, and provide tons of valuable insights into your documents. EverlawAI Assistant enhances the user experience of traditional ediscovery platforms by constantly learning and gathering information, to give you the best product possible.
