The technology appears to be having very little effect on job numbers in the law. Helping maintain, or even boost, lawyer numbers are
court rules that mandate that the technology only be used for basic tasks.
Globally, the research is inconclusive. A February working paper from the US National Bureau of Economic Research found that AI adoption had so far had “muted effects” on the employment of US-based professionals. The authors concluded this was due to offsetting effects: while AI cuts demand for some roles, “the resulting increase in firm productivity increases overall employment across all occupations.”
“AI is like having a team with four extra members.”
— Consultant Lisa Carlin
Lisa Carlin uses a range of generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, as consulting partners when advising clients.
“I’ve used AI to develop and iterate ideas for an AI-based technology product,” the Sydney-based Carlin says. “We took customer feedback, plus AI iteration, plus human input, then we developed a straw model for how the product could look. Then in a workshop we iterated again and came to a much more finalised outcome than we would have without the AI.”
The prompts included “asking the tool to suggest more ideas, to expand on ideas, to come up with some other solutions.”
Carlin, via her one-woman firm The Turbochargers, says the technology allowed her to do the work of a team on her own.
“AI is like having a team with four extra members,” she says. “I can help more clients in the same time. I get a half a day a week of extra time, about an hour a day.”
AI is different enough to earlier technological innovations that it will dramatically reduce the number of consultants needed to produce high-quality work, she says.
“All the technology in the past, like process automation, takes what you have already and speeds it up in a linear way,” Carlin says. “AI learns from what you’re doing and increases the output and the rate of improving the output. You end up with an exponential increase in productivity and creativity. ”
This means AI will “cut the number of consultants that clients use and the ones that are left are going to have to be the top 20 per cent. The middle layer will be disrupted more than the top layer. They are doing co-ordination, and that’s not required with AI. The bottom layer is also in trouble.”
Despite being pessimistic about employment numbers, she’s certain the role of a consultant will remain in demand.
“People will always need help for things they don’t have time or expertise to do,” she says.
“I can see it shaking up consulting, but I don’t know how at the moment.”
— Consultant Andrew Divitaris
Andrew Divitaris, a co-founder and director at project management specialists IDEE Group, says AI helps him save time when producing the first draft of documents.
“It’s a great time-saver for us in developing first drafts of proposal documents, and even client deliverables or validating our analysis,” Sydney-based Divitaris says. “However, it still requires domain expertise and knowledge to bring the quality to a level that provides insights and value for our clients.”
He estimates that AI saves him about a half-day every week in time, but he remains uncertain about the long-term effect of AI on the advisory sector.
“I’m uncertain about the full impact,” Divitaris says. “I can see it shaking up consulting, but I don’t know how at the moment.”
PwC Australia consultant Jon Hammond says using AI for simple processing tasks frees up time to focus on more complex work, meaning client work can be done faster and at a lower cost.
“AI is allowing us to assess any issues that our clients may face by helping analyse documents such as processes, policies and employment agreements in a quicker, more efficient way,” the Sydney-based Hammond says.
“By taking on the bulk of the grunt work of extracting information from these documents, it frees us up to look at the more technical aspects that still require full human attention.
“This means that we can more quickly respond to client issues while also providing better value. Obviously, any work that is carried out by AI needs to be reviewed, but the time it takes to do this still results in large time saving, and so cost saving to a client.”
Williams, the procurement consultant, says while AI is helpful with parsing contracts and proofreading, it struggles with certain aspects of contract analysis.
“It’s good at proofreading, it’s like having a virtual person on your team,” he says. However, “unless the contract is clear” AI “can struggle with interpreting timing in a contract, and that is often critical, so we still have to check that ourselves.”