But despite the sophistication of the new generation of chatbots, whether they help or hinder client communication depends on their implementation. Bolander warns that "many AI solutions, especially chatbots, are half-baked" and that they can pose a "risk for telling a client or prospect something inaccurate or creating frustrations versus a real human." The liability risk of AI chatbots is highlighted by a well-publicized case from 2024 where Air Canada had to pay compensation because of false information on a company policy provided by its customer service chatbot.
Brook notes that there are also a multitude of privacy and data protection risks presented by client-facing chatbots, "especially when plug-in technology is used" — such as where a law firm simply adds a chatbot interface on its website that links directly to an external provider like ChatGPT or Claude. She says that "it is critical that lawyers pay attention" to the potential for data scraping of content submitted to a chatbot by a client — a particularly serious risk if any confidential information is shared.
Realities versus Expectations
As instant forms of communication have proliferated over the years, so have clients come to expect quick responses in all areas of their lives, even more so when matters are urgent, as is often the case with legal queries. Brook says that "clients always expect immediate responses," but this need for speed does not always align to the careful and measured pace of legal work. Although lawyers should ideally be able to adapt to the communication tools favored by their clients, she notes that this does not always work in practice, with popular corporate intranet platforms such as Teams and Slack posing a range of privacy and security risks. Third-party software can also make it more difficult for lawyers to integrate communication carried out over those platforms with the firm's practice management suite, often necessitating multiple screenshots and downloads.
Large law firms are facing “increasing demands from clients” for AI chatbots to allow them to “self-serve and circumvent the need to direct all queries through lawyers.”
And despite the plethora of new communication tools available, many clients still prefer some of the old tried and tested methods. Bolander says that there is often still a tendency "towards picking up the phone or scheduling a meeting when an email would be sufficient," particularly in the case of "small business clients where ownership regularly works odd hours."
A Healthy Separation
There has been a long-running debate around the pros and cons of keeping professional communication devices — such as mobile phones and laptops — separate from personal ones, with many businesses implementing bring your own device (BYOD) policies that allow employees to use their personal devices for work and often provide some form of compensation. Boldander argues that, in an ideal world, devices would be kept separate in the legal industry for security and compliance purposes, but says that, in reality, "since security is a tradeoff in convenience, the vast majority of small firms choose to let attorneys use their personal phones." The good news is that "technology is sufficiently advanced to allow this to happen securely, such as Microsoft 365’s ability to 'containerize' the firm’s data on a personal phone."
But even if lawyers are careful to ensure the integrity of lines of communication, gaps can appear on the client side. Brook says that clients often blur the lines of communication, using a mixture of personal and work emails and devices when contacting their lawyers. But she says that, although it is "not possible to say you will only accept instructions via one channel," lawyers can ensure they always reply to clients from a secure and encrypted channel.
AI and the Future of Client Communications
It's clear that AI will come to play an increasing role in every aspect of business and society, including the provision of legal services. Certain tools can already be applied by firms to assist with the administration of client correspondence. Bolander says that AI "can connect to client files, emails and meeting transcripts" and act as a smart form of client database search, avoiding time spent digging through multiple sources to find relevant information. Looking into the future, he sees a growing trend of leveraging AI as an assistant, noting an example of its use for "reviewing previous meeting notes and emails, then drafting an email response." However, he notes that attorneys "consistently cite their strong writing skills as important" and does not see AI taking over drafting and writing anytime soon.
Although lawyers should ideally be able to adapt to the communication tools favored by their clients, [Brook] notes that this does not always work in practice, with popular corporate intranet platforms such as Teams and Slack posing a range of privacy and security risks.
Looking further into the future, Brook says that she is "currently working with clients using digital twins" and thinks this could eventually be deployed to some degree for lawyer-client communication. The concept of digital twinning is rather broad, but it currently relates to the ability for agentic AI to essentially act on behalf of a human, for example, by automatically responding to emails.
Although many aspects of the legal profession are being thrown into question by the rapid advances of AI, the value of human communication is ever more likely to rise. Even if clients are able to ask an AI chatbot to provide legal advice, many will likely pay a premium to deal with a human lawyer and retain a more traditional client-lawyer relationship.
