Artificial intelligence in legal tech from the perspective of an Austrian lawyer

Abstract

Legal Tech and Artificial Intelligence are often used as buzz words to promote new products that allegedly have the potential to disrupt the entire legal industry. However, the reality of many Austrian lawyers is different. So far most Legal Tech tools only facilitate administrative tasks or support lawyers in simple repetitive legal tasks. The most commonly used tools dont even involve Artificial Intelligence. Already since the 1950s Artificial Intelligence has been the subject of regular scientific research and greater progress has been announced ever since. So why should there be break throughs now and what can the combination of these two fields achieve? The aim of this master thesis is to critically evaluate potential fields of application of Artificial Intelligence in Legal Tech for lawyers, companies and the public sector. The thesis will give examples in all three areas where and how Artificial Intelligence is already used today and assess the conditions for progressing use of Artificial Intelligence in Legal Tech. Further, problems and implications arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence shall be evaluated. In order to give a future outlook, this master thesis will analyze the abilities and properties required, whether humans or Artificial Intelligence can perform better in these domains and look at potential improvements to the status quo by Artificial Intelligence. The Thesis finds that Artificial Intelligence will enable lawyers to focus on more complex legal work and offer new opportunities, whereas it will also affect their education and pricing models and increase competition. The public sector will also increasingly work with AI, but constitutional rights and those of the GDPR will have to be respected. Finally, new opportunities for businesses will arise.