Client facing KM (knowledge management) and AI (artificial intelligence) have been topics of conversation at conferences and in articles for years. I revisited this topic when in a recent presentation at the International Bar Association Annual meeting in Washington, DC. My slides are below and the post closes with a list of large firms offering online legal services.
My presentation starts by examining what clients want, which is solutions, not just information. To think about how to do this, I use a framework developed by Richard Susskind. I then relate online services to internal KM. Given the recent hype about AI – and because AI drives some online legal services – I take a detour into an overview of AI, noting that for online services, expert systems are really the main AI tool so far. (For AI context, one slide illustrates other uses of AI in legal.)
With the stage set, the presentation exams types of client facing systems and technologies to support them. That leads to a discussion of the challenges of building these systems. Challenges notwithstanding, some 40 firms in Australia, Canada, the UK, and US do offer services. So that leads to why and what the opportunities and costs to do so. I then reach some conclusions.
Be sure to scroll to the last slide for the bonus conclusions!
