June 17, 2025

Generative AI tools can summarize court decisions, draft legal memos, and even engage in natural-sounding conversation. It’s tempting to imagine a future where much of a lawyer’s client-facing work is handled by machines. Intake forms become chatbots. Follow-up emails are automated. The tone sounds just right. It’s efficient, scalable, and consistent. But is it wise?

While automation has its place, especially in back-office and document-heavy tasks, the essence of client service lies in what AI lacks: empathy, judgment, trust-building, and accountability. Lawyers who fully outsource client service interactions to generative AI risk eroding the very relationships that define their value.

Client Service Is Not a Commodity

True client service isn’t just about fast answers or 24/7 availability. It’s about how clients feel about their case, their lawyer, and the legal process itself. It’s bedside manners. It’s emotional quotient. It’s being seen and heard.

AI can simulate conversation, but it can’t form a bond. And in law, that bond is often what keeps a client engaged, loyal, and confident in the outcome. Delegating that experience to a tool, however advanced, turns a relationship into a transaction.

What AI Can’t Do (And Why It Matters)

Clients don’t return to a law firm because the chatbot remembers their last case. They return because someone remembered their daughter’s name or asked how recovery from surgery was going. Relationships are rooted in empathy and continuity, not scripts.

Legal advice considers many angles. Human lawyers weigh not only the legal implications, but also the personal and ethical ones. Generative AI can produce options, but it cannot grasp the lived realities or dilemmas behind a choice.

Much of client communication involves unspoken cues: a pause before answering, a change in tone, visible distress. Lawyers use this information to guide their responses, probe deeper, or provide reassurance. AI lacks this perceptive capacity.

When AI provides inaccurate, misleading, or jurisdictionally incorrect information, who is responsible? The client may not understand that the interaction isn’t legally binding, but the lawyer is still on the hook.

Well-trained AI generates polished responses, but the human experience is messy. Clients value honesty, not perfection. They want to feel that their situation is unique and taken seriously, not just another prompt in a queue.

Cautionary Tales: When Technology Replacement Fails

Before embracing full automation of client service, legal professionals should consider the numerous cases where removing human elements from service interactions has resulted in unexpected consequences across industries.

Industries that have attempted to automate customer service extensively often face backlash and unintended negative outcomes. For instance, while self-checkout lanes in supermarkets offer convenience, they have also led to increased theft and customer dissatisfaction.

After the aggressive implementation of AI-driven customer service systems in 2017, Bank of America was forced to reintroduce human representatives for complex account services after experiencing a 17% drop in customer satisfaction scores.

Furthermore, the consequences of prioritizing technology over human interaction can extend beyond the immediate exchange. Clients might feel disconnected or undervalued, leading to a deterioration in trust and satisfaction. This erosion of the relationship can ultimately result in a decline in client loyalty and engagement.

In the legal industry, the stakes are even higher. A mistake or oversight due to the limitations of AI can have far-reaching consequences for a client’s case and overall well-being. Therefore, legal professionals must carefully consider the balance between leveraging technology and preserving the irreplaceable human touch in their practice.

The Economics of Human Service

While firms may view AI as a cost-cutting measure for client service, this perspective often overlooks the economic value of the human touch.

Data consistently shows that personalized service increases client retention. The cost of acquiring a new client is 5-7 times higher than maintaining an existing relationship. A 5% increase in client retention can increase firm profitability by 25-95%.

Firms that maintain high-touch, human-centered service can command premium rates. As AI becomes commonplace, human attention becomes a scarce resource.

While AI might reduce short-term staffing costs, the risk exposure from algorithmic errors, miscommunications, or compliance failures can far outweigh these savings.

Outsourcing client service touches on multiple ethical concerns. Using AI tools as internal aids is one thing. But when AI begins to act as the public-facing voice of the firm, the line blurs. Clients may believe they’re speaking with someone authorized to advise them. For this reason, California enacted a bot disclosure law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17940-17942). Misconception can carry risk, both for malpractice and unauthorized practice of law.

Implementing a Human-Centered Technology Strategy

Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human client service, forward-thinking firms are developing integrated strategies that leverage technology to enhance human capabilities:

The most effective approach uses AI to handle routine tasks while freeing lawyers to focus on relationship-building. This includes:

• Using AI to draft initial documents that lawyers then personalize.
• Implementing intelligent scheduling systems that respect both efficiency and the need for adequate client face time.
• Developing knowledge management systems that ensure client preferences and personal details are accessible to all firm members.
• Establishing clear boundaries around when and how technology interfaces with clients.
• Developing explicit policies about which communications can be automated versus which require human attention.
• Creating client preference systems that allow individuals to opt in or out of AI-assisted communications.
• Establishing regular human check-ins even when parts of the case management are automated.

The Future Is AI + Human

Generative AI has immense potential. It can speed up document creation, synthesize research, and triage administrative work. Used thoughtfully, it frees up lawyers to focus on higher-value, client-facing tasks.

But when it comes to service and the human moments that define a lawyer-client relationship, AI should support, not supplant. The more AI becomes integrated into practice, the more a lawyer’s humanity becomes the differentiator.

Every firm has access to AI tools. Soon it won’t be a competitive edge, it will be a baseline. What will set lawyers apart is their ability to connect, listen, interpret, and care.

The human edge isn’t something to be automated. It’s something to be invested in.

The law has always been a human profession addressing human problems. While technology reshapes how legal work is performed, the core of the attorney-client relationship remains fundamentally human. Successful firms will use technology to enhance human connections, not replace them.

©2025. First published in Law Practice Today, June 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association or the copyright holder.