With AI Tools, It’s Always Daylight Saving Time

First, the bad news:

Daylight saving time (DST) arrived this past weekend, meaning we all lost an hour of sleep. So if you’re dragging this week, you can blame New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson and London builder William Willett, credited as the originators of modern-day DST.

The good news? We gained precious daylight in the process. If there’s one thing that DST and AI have in common, it’s the power to reshape our days, changing how we spend our time and live our lives. And while DST can only do so by one hour in either direction, AI’s potential positive impacts are far more significant.

AI saves time itself. For professionals with heavy workloads, that is an invaluable and all-too-scarce asset. This is why AI tools are radically reshaping industries like the legal field, for one. Legal pros are perpetually overloaded, and when billable hours are the name of the game, saving time is as good as saving money, meaning any tech that can help accomplish that end is mission-critical.

What’s more, the beauty of AI-driven efficiency is that saving time is only the beginning.

Those savings have a wide-ranging ripple effect - let’s unpack it:

• Saves time and money: “The bottom line” is exactly that for many professionals: the bottom line. The initial integration of AI tools into law firms’ workflows can be costly, depending on the firm’s size and operational complexity, as well as the tools themselves. But the ROI potential is unmistakable. There’s a wide range of AI-powered platforms that can help legal pros automate tasks, shrinking their to-do lists and adding much-needed breathing room to their calendars. And by cutting costs while making more time to bring in revenue, firms can pass those financial gains along to their clients.

• Alleviates burnout: Sure, maximizing billable hours with AI is all well and good, but won’t someone think of those hard-working legal pros themselves? Well, offerings like VoiceHub give them the power of AI transcription, which makes creating, analyzing, and organizing voice recordings easy. By enabling legal pros to transcribe client meetings, depositions, court proceedings, and more with exceptional accuracy, VoiceHub takes the stress out of routine legal tasks. And by protecting that data with best-in-class privacy and security measures, it provides both law firms and their clients peace of mind. It all adds up to reduced attorney burnout.

• Boosted client satisfaction: On the topic of burnout: They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but you don’t need to be a sailor to see why happier, more relaxed lawyers also means happier, more relaxed clients. AI tools not only help attorneys achieve their clients’ desired outcomes, but also strengthen attorney-client relationships along the way.?

• Expands access to justice: Perhaps the most meaningful effect of AI tools on legal work is the expansion of access to justice. By increasing firm efficiency and reducing the billable hours charged to each client, AI tools are able to bring down the costs of legal representation. This lowers prohibitive financial barriers for prospective clients, opening the courthouse doors to many who were previously priced out. Firms can cast wider nets in terms of case intake, and more people can pursue the justice that they may have otherwise been denied.

Now let's look at what's trending:

• Mashable’s Amanda Yeo catalogued the legal field’s nascent AI era, offering “a glimpse at what an AI-assisted legal system could look like as companies continue to explore the area.” Mashable

• Tom Barnett, Jackson Lewis’ chief data officer, laid out “why you need to pay attention to the rise of autonomous AI agents” for Fast Company, writing, “The significance of agentic AI may actually exceed the hype.” Fast Company

• And in a seminar at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, law professor David Engstrom hailed AI’s "massive access-widening potential," calling for courthouse AI adoption as a public resource. Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)

What are you getting done with your extra hour of daylight?

Let us know in the comments and you may see your response featured in a future newsletter.