"Make It Sound Like a Lawyer Wrote It": Scenarios of Potential Impacts of Generative AI for Legal Conflict Resolution

2026-02-27

AI Summary

This study examines the dual promise and perils of generative artificial intelligence in legal dispute resolution, where it may enhance efficiency and access to justice yet risks inaccurate legal advice and compromised adjudicative legitimacy. Innovatively integrating scenario-based narratives, surveys, and qualitative content analysis across jurisdictions (the European Union and the United States) and stakeholder groups (legal professionals and the public), the research systematically investigates how divergent regulatory frameworks—such as the EU AI Act and U.S. industry self-regulation—shape user expectations regarding AI’s role throughout the legal process. The findings identify core benefits including automation-driven efficiency and improved justice accessibility, alongside critical risks such as accountability gaps and algorithmic bias, thereby distilling key trade-off dimensions that inform prospective governance strategies for the digital transformation of法治.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Law, Justice, Regulation & Governance
• Humans and AI: User Experience and Usability
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Responsible Web: Algorithmic accountability and transparency on the web

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) tools are transforming critical societal domains, including the legal sector. While these tools create opportunities such as increased efficiency and potential improvements in access to justice, they also present new challenges, such as the risk of inaccurate legal advice and questions about the legitimacy of legal decisions. However, the full impact remains to be seen and ultimately depends on the way GenAI tools are implemented and used by both, legal professionals and citizens. This makes anticipating and managing the positive and negative impacts of GenAI use in the legal domain challenging but also important to guide the digital transformation of the legal sector into a societally desirable direction. In this paper, we set out to explore the spectrum of possible impacts of GenAI in the legal domain, examining how this technology is anticipated being used and the potential implications this might have for the legal sector and society. Using a scenario writing method, we surveyed participants in the EU and US including both citizens and legal professionals about the potential impact of generative AI on legal conflict resolution. Respondents were tasked with writing a narrative drawing on their experience or expertise about a future in which AI is used throughout the legal process. We qualitatively analysed the prevalence of risk and benefit themes, as well as the types of anticipated legal tasks. We then compared these findings based on expertise status (legal experts versus citizens) and regional regulatory background (the EU with the EU AI Act versus the US with an industry self-regulatory approach). Finally, we describe the emerging trade-offs that will affect decision-makers in the legal sector.

Problem

• Generative AI
• Legal Conflict Resolution
• Societal Impact
• Digital Transformation
• AI Regulation

Innovation

• generative AI
• scenario writing
• legal conflict resolution
• comparative regulatory analysis
• qualitative thematic analysis