Hey ChatGPT – what’s all this AI I keep hearing about? The $7 trillion disruption

I was having lunch with a friend recently—someone who’s definitely wiser than I am. He asked what I thought AI would do to the legal field—and what I’m hearing from senior law firm and corporate leaders about it.

How are they preparing for a future where much of the early-career professional work—such as document review, e-discovery, contract checking, tax preparation, financial analysis, and even engineering—gets done faster (and possibly better) by AI?

Demonstrating my own wisdom, I excused myself to ask my new assistant, ChatGPT.

Just kidding.

But AI is everywhere—and even though we don’t fully grasp its impact, we all feel the ground shifting beneath us.

The Tremendous Economic Catalyst

According to McKinsey, $7 trillion will be invested in AI infrastructure by 2030—about 30% of our total GDP. That’s an unfathomable number: seven trillion.

For perspective: If you spent $100 every minute of every day, it would take almost 20 years to spend $1 billion.

Now multiply that by 7,000.

This wave of investment is already transforming the economy—including the law. The AI boom is fueling demand in corporate transactions, intellectual property, real estate, land use, leasing, finance, construction, and securities. And before it’s done, it will spark a new wave of litigation—when things inevitably go wrong.

The last time something was this dominant in conversation, news, and investment was when COVID emerged.

Unlike COVID, AI isn’t making anyone sick. But like COVID, it might make us more isolated—especially if we forget how to connect without a keyboard between us. And it will impact untold numbers of jobs, which left me pondering three questions:

1. Which jobs are most likely to be affected globally and within law firms and legal services?
2. How does this impact my companies — The Advocates and TLSS?
3. What can young professionals today do to protect themselves (or inoculate, like COVID) against these forces?

The Other Side

While the short-term investment has been positive, AI already writes first drafts, reviews documents, reconciles accounts, flags fraud, creates models, simulates engineering designs, drafts tax returns, predicts failures, analyzes markets, and even writes code. In many areas, AI now performs the first 80% of the work that used to be assigned to humans.

So, for our clients, as AI becomes more sophisticated, the need for 1st–4th-year associates will fall dramatically. Document review, basic drafting, and due diligence will be handled by AI, with humans reviewing the output.

It also means no more billing for those folks’ hours—billing for the output instead—while making it even more difficult to differentiate legal services.

So, where does that leave US?

For The Advocates/TLSS, right where we’ve always been: at the intersection of people, performance, and purpose.

At The Advocates and TLSS, our work is built on human connection.

AI can analyze documents, but it can’t detect dishonesty in an interview, read tone or inflection, or build trust through a handshake. It can’t see what motivates someone or assess the fit between a person and a work culture.

Our clients don’t just hire résumés—they hire people. They will still need people at more senior levels. They will need people with the intellect to utilize these tools, develop new creative solutions, interview clients, ask more profound questions to uncover real needs, build relationships, and create trust.

We also see smaller law firms needing more “just-in-time talent” (TLSS’s specialty) to keep costs variable and provide high-touch services, as they might not be able to afford the substantial investment in the latest AI tools. They will need to rely on human trust, connection, and deep knowledge of their clients.

Our differentiator has always been a deep understanding of clients and candidates:

• Not who our clients say they are, but who they show us they are.

• Not just what candidates do, but why they do it.

Our processes—rooted in inquiry, empathy, and precision—are not replaceable by an algorithm.

The Great News

Our humanness is our edge, and our opportunity.

AI will accelerate the what.

But the why—human judgment, trust, and understanding—still belongs to us.

Not just for The Advocates, but for every young professional thinking about their career and where they want to take it.

What do you hope to build for yourself? Focus on your soft skills—your human skills—and develop those to differentiate yourself.

At The Advocates and TLSS, we connect technology with humanity—helping law firms and legal departments hire the skills they need, when they need them, and the people who make all the difference.

Curious: what skill, habit, or trait do you think AI will never replace?