AI for Legal Aid: First Field Study Results

In a recent episode of the LSC podcast, Talk Justice, legal tech researchers discuss their field study of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for legal aid. Colleen Chien and Miriam Kim authored a paper on their research, “Generative AI and Legal Aid: Results from a Field Study and 100 Use Cases to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap,” which was published in April. The co-authors want to advance the conversation around generative AI for access to justice with data. Bréyon Austin, a participant in the study, also offers her perspective.

In the podcast, Results from the First Field Study of AI for Legal Aid, the researchers discuss the pervasive justice gap for those seeking assistance for their civil legal problems and how AI tools might be used to address the gap. Following the pilot study, concerns remained but results suggest “…that generative AI tools can significantly enhance legal professionals and narrow the justice gap, but that how they are introduced matters…” For example, those who received “concierge support” (assistance with AI tools, office hours, etc.) had significantly better outcomes than the control group across a range of metrics. The researchers, backed by study results, view AI tools as augmentation rather than threatening the work of lawyers.

In each episode of Talk Justice, LSC explores ways to expand access to justice and illustrate why it is important to the legal community, business, government and the general public. Listen to this episode or the latest installment here: Talk Justice, An LSC Podcast - Legal Talk Network.