Research into artificial intelligence (AI) has made impressive progress in various areas in recent years. This opens up completely new possibilities for many areas in terms of greater efficiency and automation. The use of AI could offer very attractive benefits, particularly for sectors that typically generate large volumes of text data in the form of documents. In the legal sector, traditionally manual work could also be automated. In order to make decisions in legal matters such as court rulings or dispute resolution, for example, lawyers use specialized reasoning and logic. This is where legal technology can assist by recommending the best strategies and logical reasoning based on legal background knowledge and principles.
In the broadest sense, the field of LegalTech bundles innovative technologies to improve legal processes. It is attracting increasing attention from both the academic and practical side. The growing demand for innovative technological solutions has led to numerous LegalTech start-ups around the world – including in Germany.
Overview of how AI supports the legal sector
At CIT, an interdisciplinary research team led by Prof. Florian Matthes (Chair of Software Engineering for Business Information Systems - sebis) has looked into the topic and developed the so-called “Legal AI Use Case Radar 2024”. The doctoral candidates Juraj Vladika, Stephen Meisenbacher and Nektarios Machner are focusing on various aspects of natural language processing (NLP). Their combined expertise in this area and their shared interest in legal technologies have driven the work behind the “Legal AI Use Case Radar 2024” over the past year and a half. In July 2024, they published the “Radar” as a website and report for free download.
The website presents the latest and most innovative use cases for AI in the German legal system. It summarizes the findings from 49 scientific publications and over 50 interviews with users and providers of legal AI in a clear graphic format. It also allows quick access to all use cases, divided into use case categories and arranged according to the number of testimonials. The researchers summarized the information from the interviews in a uniformly structured manner in anonymized experience reports. These provide information about the actual use of AI in Germany.
In addition to the website, the 72-page report “Legal AI Use Case Radar 2024” breaks down the identified use cases and provides additional insights from the ongoing study. Annual updates of the “Radar” and the report are planned.