‘How are junior lawyers using AI?’

Whenever I have used AI (whether copilot or something more specific that’s apparently geared up for legal research/drafting) I’ve been disappointed.

I last asked it to summarise a section of an act for me, and it did summarise something, just not the section I asked it to. It does this consistently.

We’re not yet at the point where AI is replacing juniors.

We may very well see a day soon where the number of paralegals and trainees are reduced due to AI doing the most administrative tasks but I think that day is still a few years away.

Currently, people are using AI to reduce tasks; not roles. But that will likely change.

It’s pre-dominantly used for summarising / certain legal research tasks at a junior levels. I think agentic AI is definitely coming for the Personal Assistants, but will take a bit longer to replace trainees/NQs.

I supervised a few vacation scheme students this summer. All seemed to be using AI extensively and you could really see it in the quality of their work.

I would use it cautiously and try to get to a point where you can still get to the answers without it. Extensive use from early on in your career might just result in you being unable to reason, research or come to conclusions without it.