AI vs. Automation: A Practical Mental Model
Why this matters
Many “AI” products in legal are really automation or rules engines. That’s not necessarily bad—automation can be valuable—but it changes what you should expect, test, and pay for.
A simple breakdown
- Automation: if‑then rules, templates, workflow routing
- Machine learning: models trained on examples; performance measured and improved
- GenAI / LLM features: text generation and summarization that must be verified
What to request from vendors
- A clear description of what’s model‑driven vs rules‑driven
- Performance metrics and test methodology
- A demo using your document types and edge cases