“Your Legalito system is poor and not used by other firms … thankfully it is not frequently used.”
This was an email sent this week by one lawyer to another when he was asked to use our enquiry management platform.
Disappointing, but not for the reasons you might think.
All technology providers think their product is the answer to everything
Having been in technology for 20 years, I have a lot of experience of the disillusionment and frustration from customers that follows the initial hope and enthusiasm when the purchase order was first signed. It’s not surprising that lawyers are sceptical of the promise of technology providers, with many hours wasted looking at solutions desperately looking for problems.
Indeed, the lawyer in this case was so frustrated he copied in everyone he could find and even asked it to be forwarded to us. We could see he had not actually used the platform, and when asked how he had formed his opinions, his previous vocalness turned to a deafening silence.
The next day, when another lawyer told me “the platform is clunky and awkward to use” before confessing she had not actually seen it, this confirmed my theory that technology fatigue is real and understandable.
We must address this, because we are currently in a maelstrom of unprecedent technology change, and being in a business where knowledge is the core element, we run the risk of falling asleep at the wheel.
The problem is cost – personal and business-wise
Like others, I have always believed there is no substitution for the personal touch, which is why we don’t use chatbots on our website and have won each of our 30,000 cases through a telephone conversation. The problem is this approach comes at a cost for many lawyers and their firms. A personal cost to those working long hours to meet the expectations of clients, stressed by high caseloads due to low fees dictated by market competitiveness, resulting in claims caused by mistakes they make due to this overload.
If we have learned anything from the past few years, it’s that the current approach is unsustainable – it’s no surprise over 4000 lawyers have taken up self-employed consultant status to enable them to manage their caseloads and work-life balance.
Change IS coming – conversational singularity
Discussions on social media and at conferences show a split between those who believe we must combine technology with personal expertise and those that dismiss technology advances as too trivial to help lawyers struggling with 100 cases and 200 daily emails. The problem is that most of the talk revolves around how technology is revolutionising the capture of client and property data. This is like mountaineers discussing the merits of the bus service from Kathmandu to the foothills of Everest.
Instead, we must look at the extraordinary technology developments happening today that are going to change all our lives in conveyancing. In 2025, you will hear the phrase “Conversational Singularity” which in its simplest translation means talking to a computer with realising it’s not human – an extension of Alan Turing’s test – the Imitation Game. ( Singularity as a general concept is much more terrifying, reflecting the situation where technology runs out of control ).
It’s a simple concept. By linking voice technology to artificial intelligence that uses large language models (eg GPT ) and a database, it should be possible to have a conversation with a machine using content based on the data you store, potentially with no human involved. However, what is most surprising is that this technology is already more than just a concept and is available today – we can already generate realistic conversations based on underlying data to produce remarkable content. As an example, I uploaded this article to a platform that generated a podcast based purely on its content and nothing else. Click below to listen to a genuinely engaging five minute discussion between two artificial actors about this piece.
What is most interesting about the podcast is that it draws on both information from the article itself, but also from external data sources to give both context and indeed colour.
It’s genuinely hard to believe that the conversation is not between humans.
The future is here today
New technology such as realistic voice interactions always needs a breakthrough product and this has arrived in the form of a new service called “Boardy.ai”. It’s designed to have conversations with people with the goal of introducing them to others through LinkedIn. It works because people forget they are talking to a non-human and the conversations are extraordinarily lifelike.
Customer service firms are already using this technology and it won’t be long before law firms start see the benefit. By training a machine on thousands of conveyancing cases, analysing the documents and the resultant enquiries and answers they generate, and combining these with the ability to communicate with a human over the telephone, indicates the sheer power that is within our grasp.
Please listen to the podcast, consider the ramifications of what you’ve heard and join us in thinking how we can apply it to all our businesses to make all our lives easier.
Peter Ambrose is the owner of The Partnership and Legalito
2 responses
Peter, the podcast is phenomenal. It covers the same topic as if – say – you and I were chatting calmly and positively. I have just sent it to a client, and my co-founder so they too can have a listen.
I can see how easy it is to forget this is AI speaking, and not humans.
Unfortunately it has an American accent for a British system. You could have programmed it to fool us.