Artificial intelligence dominated this year’s Techshow
Like Neo being surrounded by a near-infinite number of Agent Smiths in The Matrix: Reloaded, it was nearly impossible to escape the shadow of generative artificial intelligence at this year’s ABA Techshow.
“Everyone says they have AI, so it’s a lot of noise out there,” says Michael Cornelison, the chief innovation officer at Duggan Bertsch in Chicago. “With my background, I’ve seen it all, so I’m just trying to get my feet wet with some of the newer technologies.”
Cornelison and others got the opportunity to do just that during the four-day annual conference, which was held this year at Chicago’s McCormick Place from March 25-28. Bearing a superhero/comic book theme to reflect the transformative power and potential of AI, the show featured nearly 60 panels and presentations and more than 100 legal technology vendors—all there to explain to the 2,000-plus attendees about how they can supercharge their practices.
“Part of what I have been doing is trying to improve [our firm’s] technology base, improve their security, and see what tools should we bring to bear for our firm, and how do we enable our firm to grow using some of these strategies,” says Cornelison, who stepped into his role last fall.
He and other attendees had no shortage of options for their consideration. Most of the information sessions and panels dealt with AI, and most of the vendors in the expo hall had integrated some form of AI into their products or services.
Indeed, at the 10th annual Startup Alley, the traditional show-opening pitch competition, all of the participating contestants had used AI to some degree.
This year’s winner was CollBox, which was founded in 2015 and helps lawyers collect on unpaid invoices. Co-founder Matt Darner explained during his three-minute pitch that CollBox integrates with leading practice management systems and automatically detects unpaid bills. The service also uses email reminders and phone calls from trained accounts receivable experts to recover payments for firms.
“That’s the star of the show right now, because no one wants to call on past-due bills,” said Darner, adding that CollBox has recovered more than $140 million for law firms.
Other entrants included runner-up Candle AI, a legal email assistant that helps small and midsize firms free up hours they spend sorting through and responding to emails; Lawdify, which provides AI-native evidence analysis and claims preparation for construction disputes; and LegalBridge, an AI-powered case management system built for immigration law firms.
While the looming specter of AI is a cause for concern for many in the legal industry, others argue that it could allow lawyers to reinvent and redefine themselves and their practices.
Lawyers need to do three things to differentiate themselves from AI and ensure their continued success, keynote speaker and legal consultant Jordan Furlong said.
They need to build a new professional identity based on trustworthy guidance; they need to establish a new professional purpose around civic responsibility; and they need to create a new professional pathway based on proven competence.
He added that lawyers need to understand what it means to be a “human lawyer” who will provide personal counsel to clients and accompany them on every step of their legal journey, and a “civic lawyer” who will garner meaning through their service to society.
“These are wild suggestions, these are radical notions, but we are in a radical time,” Furlong said. “We are at a turning point in the history of the legal profession.”
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