How AI and analytics will help your firm grow
Wednesday 12 April, 2023
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A 2011 study showed that judges in parole hearings were increasingly unlikely to grant parole as the sessions wore on. Early hearings had a 65% chance of parole, but steadily dropped down to nearly 0%. After a break, the likelihood returned to 65%.
Wise legal minds can be just as tired, hungry, and irritable as any. It’s just human. That’s where AI will be a valuable advisor. Not only will it present vast amounts of powerful data, but it will allow you to be sure that your instincts are backed by facts.
Here’s how AI will help you remain confident in your strategies when you’re growing your firm.
More and better data
AI will be able to gather, analyse, and present extraordinary quantities of high-quality data, and present it in a way that’s easy to consume. Partners and practice managers will have greater, more detailed visibility on their firm’s activities, the profitability of fee-earner time, and perhaps even the likely outcome of cases.
You’ll see where work is inefficient, where workflows and case management could be more logical, where investment needs to go, and where it’s not making the return you want.
In short, you can be confident that the time and energy you devote to developing the firm are in the right place.
Better workflows
Not only can AI show you how to run your workflows, but it will also run the workflows for you.
Workflow automation uses algorithms to determine each step (i.e. if condition X is met, action Y will happen). AI can then work through tasks independently. The benefit of that to a firm is clear — less time on repetitive, time-consuming tasks and more time available for creative, highly-skilled billable hours.
You will also have much happier teams, who are free from mind-numbing work, and allowed to focus more of their time on what they love.
All in all, that’s:
- more profit from existing clients
- more capacity to take on new clients
- happier, more satisfied colleagues, and better employee retention
Faster, more effective due diligence
One of many demanding administrative tasks is onboarding. Credit checks and anti-money laundering duties are a burden, and like many processes, they’re susceptible to human error.
Depending on your contract terms, that due diligence time might be less than lucrative, or not chargeable at all. If for some reason you can’t take on a client, the due diligence you performed was cheap or unbillable work that hasn’t even led to a real fee. Then there’s always a risk that your compliance officer makes a mistake, which could lead to financial penalties.
AI will make customer due diligence so much faster and more accurate; your firm will spend barely any time on clients you can’t serve, and get to work much quicker on ones you can.
Reducing bias in decision-making
Like the judges in the 2011 study, we’re all influenced by things we’d prefer not to be. There’s usually an emotional reason partly behind any choice we make, however rational we hope to be.
If you’re making decisions, especially if one of your partners disagrees, it can be helpful to have a third party to offer some detached, unbiased input. The data and analysis that AI provides will be as objective as you can get. Yes, everything is open to interpretation, but it will be powerful to have facts presented dispassionately by a source that can’t be grumpy, tired, excited, optimistic, pessimistic, or overzealous.
How to grow your firm with (and before) AI
As a tool, AI’s critical benefits are productivity and visibility. Your firm will achieve more in the working day, and you’ll have sight of your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities from a business perspective. Investment in those systems is critical. Without them, you’ll be quickly left behind.
Meanwhile, good software is the first step towards the insight and the radical efficiency that AI will help to introduce. Insight Legal, for example, has helped over 1,000 law firms manage their workflows and business processes to become more productive, efficient, and compliant.
See how you could transform your firm’s growth by calling 01252 518939 or visiting insightlegal.co.uk/solicitors-software
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