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AI is reshaping the legal client journey, changing how Australians understand their legal problems, prepare for advice, and engage with lawyers before they ever walk through the door.
In a recent episode of LawTech Talks, LawConnect chief customer officer Dane Cowley spoke with Jerome Doraisamy about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the legal profession long before clients engage a lawyer.
With AI enhancing the accessibility of legal information, individuals are progressively analysing their issues, drafting documents, and arriving at their own determinations.
Cowley discusses the implications for access to justice, the risks of misinformation and the future demand for legal services, highlighting how lawyers must adapt by focusing on human judgement, strategic guidance, and trusted client relationships in an increasingly AI-driven legal landscape.
AI and the changing client journey
AI is altering how people identify legal issues, seek information, and prepare for action before they ever consider engaging with a lawyer.
Cowley highlighted the prolonged journey before a customer gets in touch with a law firm, recognising that AI has provided society with access to legal information.
“There is an entire journey that happens before a consumer ever reaches the law firm, and it’s usually when something’s happened in their life, someone loses their job, separates from their partner, or they have a dispute,” Cowley said.
“I think that AI is fundamentally changing the consumer journey, not just once they reach the law firm, but everything that happens up until the point when they do reach the law firm.
“When you suddenly give someone a tool that helps them understand the language, maybe structure an argument, draft something and navigate the process, the threshold for taking action definitely gets lower.”
AI is also changing what lawyers can expect when their clients arrive, with many people researching their problems and forming opinions before seeking professional advice.
“Many of them have already researched the issue, built a timeline, organised their documents, and oftentimes formed a view about what should happen,” Cowley said.
“Sometimes that’s really useful, and some of it, sometimes that’s completely wrong.
“Don’t just think about how AI changes the way your firm works, think about how it’s changing the client before they ever reach you.”
The evolving role of lawyers in the age of AI
As AI streamlines routine legal tasks deemed mundane, Cowley noted that lawyers have an opportunity to focus on professional judgement, strategic advice, and the human expertise clients need.
“An analysis that I looked at recently suggested that, you know, around 70, 75 per cent of the hourly build legal tasks have some potential exposure to AI automation,” Cowley said.
“And so importantly, I don’t interpret that as 75 per cent of the lawyers are disappearing.
“I think it means that more of the information gathering, research, organising and first draft work becomes easier and more efficient to deliver.”
“And that creates capacity for really valuable work, which is judgement, strategy, negotiation, advocacy, understanding context, and giving someone advice they can actually rely on.
“AI will often give you 10 different answers and a great lawyer helps them understand which one of those they should actually act on and why.”
The increasing accessibility of AI-generated legal information also emphasises the importance of lawyers verifying information, amending misunderstandings, and taking accountability for the advice provided.
“AI can assist someone understand and prepare; however, the lawyer is there to validate information, apply judgement, and take responsibility for the advice,” Cowley said.
“What that means to me is that great lawyers can do more of the work that they are positioned really well to do.”
