This is right - there is always a need for humans at the end of the process. The problem is, though, that in traditional law firms many things that can be done by computers are done by humans. This has a couple of effects:
1. Soul-sucking work. Want to know why so many lawyers hate what they do? Because they are doing stuff that computers can do better and faster. It kills initiative, creativity, and any sense of joy.
2. Higher bills for clients. This is all done by the billable hour, so having humans do lots of soul-sucking work is extremely lucrative. We recently had a massive all-hands-on doc review that needed to be done over the course of about three days. For those three days with everyone (and I do mean everyone) doing it, the firm billed $MM/hour in aggregate.
1. Soul-sucking work. Want to know why so many lawyers hate what they do? Because they are doing stuff that computers can do better and faster. It kills initiative, creativity, and any sense of joy.
2. Higher bills for clients. This is all done by the billable hour, so having humans do lots of soul-sucking work is extremely lucrative. We recently had a massive all-hands-on doc review that needed to be done over the course of about three days. For those three days with everyone (and I do mean everyone) doing it, the firm billed $MM/hour in aggregate.