Will AI replace your lawyer?

4 July, 2025

Words by Annie Prosser (co-authored by ChatGPT)

AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are changing how people interact with legal information from generating contracts to explaining legal terms in plain English. It’s fast, easy and often free. But when used in isolation, it’s also risky.

At Govett Quilliam, we see AI as a powerful and evolving tool one that can enhance legal work when used carefully. But without human judgment, ethical oversight and legal governance, it can do more harm than good.

What AI offers and why it’s not enough

There’s no doubt AI can improve access and efficiency. It can:

  • Draft simple documents
  • Translate and summarise information
  • Extract key points from legislation
  • Help with brainstorming or formatting

This kind of support can be helpful especially for repetitive or low-risk tasks. But as the New Zealand Law Society recently reminded lawyers, AI outputs “must not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice.” That’s because generative AI:

  • Has no knowledge of your legal obligations
  • May produce inaccurate or outdated content
  • Doesn’t understand commercial nuance or context
  • Can’t be held accountable

Real-world examples of when AI gets it wrong

1. A Will that doesn’t reflect ownership: We’ve seen AI-generated Wills that leave “my home” to a beneficiary without recognising that the home is owned by a trust. The result? Legal disputes, delays, and confusion — all avoidable if the correct ownership structure had been understood from the outset.

Write a Will with ChatGPT

2. Contract reviews that miss context: AI can identify standard legal terms, but it doesn’t understand your commercial reality. For example, an AI-generated review might overlook the fact that a contract ties your business to a supplier with inflexible delivery terms which could be a major risk if your operations rely on just-in-time logistics. Without understanding your commercial priorities, AI won’t ask the right questions and what’s missing from the review can be just as dangerous as what’s included.

3. Advice that sounds right, but isn’t: AI tools can “hallucinate” clauses or cite laws that don’t apply in New Zealand. We’ve seen confident-sounding answers that reference offshore legislation or make up legal definitions. For clients relying on that information, the consequences can be costly.

The future of legal services

We’re standing at the beginning of a seismic shift in how legal services are delivered. In the not-so-distant future, we expect:

  • Legal bots from tech giants like Amazon or Google entering the legal market at scale
  • Clients expecting hybrid delivery models that combine tech with tailored legal input
  • Data and commercial fluency to become essential skills for lawyers – not just optional
  • Lawyers working more closely with business professionals, requiring deep understanding of commercial context, strategy, and risk

At GQ, we believe tomorrow’s trusted legal adviser won’t just be a legal expert. We’ll need to be critical thinkers, data-savvy analysts, collaborative problem-solvers – and excellent communicators.

We’re already seeing this change. And we’re evolving with it.

How we’re evolving at GQ

We’re not afraid of AI. We’re embracing it, responsibly. We are:

  • Trialling legal sector specific AI tools and other general AI tools in a controlled way
  • Training our teams to safely and ethically integrate AI into their workflows
  • Developing best-practice guidelines for AI use
  • Supporting clients in their own use of AI for efficiency and insight

We believe in using AI to enhance legal service, not replace it. But we’re also clear-eyed about what it means for the future of our profession.

AI can speed things up. It can support brainstorming, document drafting and research. But it cannot understand your goals, tailor advice to your risk profile, or uphold ethical and legal duties.

At Govett Quilliam, we’re helping clients harness the benefits of AI while ensuring they don’t lose the human insight and professional protection that good legal advice offers.

As technology transforms the profession, we’re embracing the change and empowering our clients to do the same.