One of the biggest questions we get at Forward Lawyer Marketing these days is whether a law firm should incorporate AI or artificial intelligence in its lawyer marketing strategy. While there are many nuances to consider, the simple answer is that AI technology can help but it still has to be proofed and corrected by a human. An internet-based artificial intelligence cannot be relied upon to know if laws are up to date and accurate nor does it write like a human. This is why Google has already developed an algorithm that can distinguish the difference and Google isn’t fond of AI content.
Lawyers across multiple practice areas from family law to personal injury law can cautiously use AI to market their law firms in many ways. AI can help lawyers increase their efficiency and productivity by automating tasks such as contract review and discovery. It can also help lawyers avoid costly mistakes and increase the speed of research and decision-making. However, AI is not yet ready to replace human judgment in the legal profession. As mentioned above, it doesn’t have the capacity to know if laws are accurate and up to date.
The business model of most law firms depends on billing as many hours as possible to clients. Law firms don’t need to invest in AI until certain advancements are so common that clients expect it. Think about how COVID permanently changed the legal profession. During COVID law firms had to do business via Zoom calls or another method of communicating such as Skype. Now, clients expect it, they’re like, “You did it during COVID why can’t you do it now.” The fact of the matter is that offering online appointments has increased the bottom line for many law firms that have embraced it.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in various ways to market law firms. According to Foster Web Marketing, AI tools are transforming law firms and their marketing in the following ways:
AI copywriting tools are making some of the biggest waves in the use of artificial intelligence right now. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is one of the most recognizable.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that uses natural language processing (NLP) technology to enable users to refine and steer a conversation toward a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language used. It is a member of the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) class of language models and was primarily built upon an improved version of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model known as “GPT-3.5”.
ChatGPT can answer questions and assist with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code. Successive prompts and replies are taken into account at each stage of the conversation as context. ChatGPT uses an algorithm that selects words based on lessons learned from scanning billions of pieces of text across the internet.
It can be tempting to give the ChatBot instructions and let it write for you but the fact of the matter is that AI is not ready for prime time without human supervision and intervention. Don’t fall into the temptation to get lazy with your content creation, it isn’t worth a Google penalty that destroys years of work on rankings.
Aside from written content, AI can also be used to create, analyze, and enhance images. Image creation is something that is a little less dangerous, Google has recently developed a program that has the ability to tell the difference between an AI-created image and one created by humans. According to a recent post, Google may label images created by AI as fake.
AI can be used to create videos that are more engaging and personalized for clients. While I have not personally experimented with AI video creation, I have seen some that are pretty phenomenal. Below is a video tutorial on How To Grow Your Law Firm with AI.
AI can help law firms analyze data and search for patterns that can help them make better decisions. That said, you must have someone that knows how to analyze the data in order to make use of it and put it into action. While AI can help automate data collection it still requires an experienced human data analyst that knows how to extrapolate the information and put it to good use.
AI-powered chatbots can help law firms provide better customer service by answering common questions and providing support 24/7. Chances are if you are up to speed on technology at all you already have chatbots installed on your website. Thee have been around for years and are responsible for bringing in a lot of business for law firms that use them.
Many people, especially the younger generation would rather chat or text with someone before making a commitment for a face-to-face meeting with an attorney. ChatBots can not only alleviate their anxiety but because they are available 24/7 they can potentially bring in potential clients you may otherwise never have seen.
What is artificial intelligence?
(AI) is the ability of machines to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation. Many are concerned about AI replacing humans. While that could possibly happen for some occupations I personally don’t see it happening anytime soon. For the legal field in particular I would never trust a machine to be able to determine if a law being referenced is accurate and current.
What are the different types of AI?
There are three main types of AI: narrow or weak AI, general or strong AI, and superintelligence. Let’s dig a little into each one of these.
Narrow or Weak AI AI
Narrow AI, also known as weak AI, is a specific type of artificial intelligence in which a learning algorithm is designed to perform a single task, and any knowledge gained from performing that task will not automatically be applied to other tasks.
Narrow AI is often contrasted with artificial general intelligence (AGI), sometimes called strong AI; a theoretical AI system that could be applied to any task or problem. Examples of narrow AI include image and facial recognition systems.
Strong AI
Strong artificial intelligence (AI), also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI) or general AI, is a theoretical form of AI that aims to create intelligent machines that are indistinguishable from the human mind.
If researchers are able to develop strong AI, the machine would require intelligence equal to humans. Strong AI would have a self-aware consciousness that has the ability to solve problems, learn, and plan for the future. However, strong AI is more of a philosophical rather than a practical approach.
The ideal strong AI machine would be built in the form of a human, have the same sensory perception as a human, and go through the same education and learning processes as a human child.
Superintelligence
Superintelligence AI is a hypothetical future artificial intelligence (AI) that is significantly smarter than the best human minds in every field. It is also known as super AI and is considered the most advanced, powerful, and intelligent type of AI. It would transcend the intelligence of some of the brightest minds, such as Albert Einstein. Machines with superintelligence are self-aware and can think of abstractions and interpretations that humans cannot.
Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is defined as a form of AI capable of surpassing human intelligence by manifesting cognitive skills and developing thinking skills of its own. ASI is different from regular artificial intelligence (AI), which involves the software-based simulation of human intelligence.
It is important to note that superintelligence AI is still a theoretical concept and has not yet been achieved. However, it remains an active area of research in the field of artificial intelligence.
What is the difference between AI and machine learning?
Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves the use of mathematical models and algorithms to enable computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed. In other words, machine learning is a way for computers to learn from experience and improve their performance on a given task over time.
There are three main types of machine learning: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning.
Supervised learning involves training a machine learning model on labeled data, where the correct output is already known. Unsupervised learning involves training a machine learning model on unlabeled data, where the correct output is not known. Reinforcement learning involves training a machine learning model to make decisions based on feedback from its environment.
Machine learning has many applications in various fields such as healthcare, finance, transportation, and more. For example, it can be used to predict which patients are at risk of developing certain diseases or to detect fraudulent financial transactions.
What are some examples of AI?
Some examples of AI include virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, self-driving cars, facial recognition software, and chatbots.
What are the ethical concerns surrounding AI?
Some ethical concerns surrounding AI include job displacement, privacy violations, bias in decision-making algorithms, and the potential for autonomous weapons.
Before implementing successful campaigns, it is important to choose an AI platform and determine which technologies will be leveraging AI and what solutions you want to use. You also need to understand that no matter what AI platform you choose there is a substantial learning curve both for the bot and the human training it.
In conclusion, lawyers should use AI to market their law firms if it helps them increase their efficiency and productivity. However, they should not rely on AI to replace human judgment in the legal profession. Instead, they should use AI as a tool to help them make better decisions and provide better services to their clients.
I hope this blog post helps you understand the benefits and limitations of using AI to market law firms. If you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to Storm Wolf Hall our SEO Director and the author of this post.
To speak to us about marketing your law firm call us at (888) 590-9687 or contact Forward Lawyer Marketing via our contact form.
Full disclosure: parts of this post were written utilizing Bing’s new AI ChatBot. See if you can tell what is human written and what was written by AI.