“As the CEO of an artificial intelligence legal technology company, the most common question I’m asked – often, nervously – is whether technology will replace lawyers. The fear is understandable. Computers have “learned” how to assist in tasks that used to be attorneys’ jobs, like due diligence, eDiscovery, and legal research, to name just a few. After enough tasks are taken away, what will be left for attorneys to do?

It is now beyond question that technology will take tasks from you. But that doesn’t mean it will necessarily take your job. Markets react to technology in unexpected ways. Many people thought ATMs would all but eliminate non-automated (human) bank tellers, but there are twice as many tellers today as there were before ATMs. Technology automated many accounting tasks (imagine the pain of accounting before Excel), but now the Big Four accounting firms make more in revenues and employ more people than the entire Am Law 100 combined. After garment work was automated in the 19th century, the numbers of employed garment workers only climbed. Often, technology creates more jobs in precisely the industries that fret the most about losing them.”