In 2005 I reviewed Richard Susskind’s book The End of Lawyers? For the SCL Magazine. I read some of the book on a ferry going to France and the theme of my review was that just as ferries seemed to survive against the odds of the Channel Tunnel and budget airlines, so would lawyers despite advancing technology.
Richard Susskind has subsequently extended his hypothesis that lawyers as a profession will need to change and adapt to meet the challenge of technology to other professions in his latest book The future of the Professions.
Since 2005 we have also seen startling advances in robotics and artificial intelligence and the use of robotic process automation (RPA) which is described as the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.
So should those of us who practice in the professions just give up and assume that the end is indeed now? I don’t think so, accepting that we will need to adapt and utilise the very technology Richard Susskind so eloquently describes.
The reason I take this optimistic approach is that at the end of the day a human being in need of professional advice or services will in the final analysis prefer for critical bet the company advice or transactions to rely on another human being, albeit one supported by all manner of technological “servants”.
Most commercial and legal issues, for example, have some kind of emotional element. Some interplay between people which has caused or contributed to the situation will need to be taken into account in its resolution.
Eoin Treacy the analyst and writer said Don't think of robots as replacements for humans -- think of them as things that will help make us better at tackling many of the problems we face.
I think this is the right approach – technology will help us and will definitely change how we work, but I suggest will not replace us for the foreseeable future.
Richard Susskind has subsequently extended his hypothesis that lawyers as a profession will need to change and adapt to meet the challenge of technology to other professions in his latest book The future of the Professions.
Since 2005 we have also seen startling advances in robotics and artificial intelligence and the use of robotic process automation (RPA) which is described as the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.
So should those of us who practice in the professions just give up and assume that the end is indeed now? I don’t think so, accepting that we will need to adapt and utilise the very technology Richard Susskind so eloquently describes.
The reason I take this optimistic approach is that at the end of the day a human being in need of professional advice or services will in the final analysis prefer for critical bet the company advice or transactions to rely on another human being, albeit one supported by all manner of technological “servants”.
Most commercial and legal issues, for example, have some kind of emotional element. Some interplay between people which has caused or contributed to the situation will need to be taken into account in its resolution.
Eoin Treacy the analyst and writer said Don't think of robots as replacements for humans -- think of them as things that will help make us better at tackling many of the problems we face.
I think this is the right approach – technology will help us and will definitely change how we work, but I suggest will not replace us for the foreseeable future.
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