Bread is only as good as the flour. Data, and its integrity, will only matter more.
AI will only perform if your data is in order. Cormac Ó Culáin of Vizlegal on data quality, structure, and the four forces shaping AI adoption in Irish firms.
86% of firms in Ireland are made up of four or fewer solicitors, once you exclude in-house “firms” where the nature of the work and support are arguably distinct from general practice. Other recent data suggests around 70% of solicitors are aged 40 or older.
The practice of law and the delivery of legal services is an inherently human activity; a public good. The continuum of legal services runs wide: from mediation to litigation, through every shade of advisory and transactional work, conveyancing to commercial, private client to institutional, legal aid to privately funded.
Taking the above into account, and alongside the demographics and firm economics, it is a certainty that the profession will not turn on AI all at once, across all of its activities.
Nor should it.
Data: a foundation
But one thing every firm has in common, since the invention of the abacus and the map, is data. Data being things that are known, and the basis of reasoning or calculation. And like flour, data comes in variable states of quality. Good, relevant data gives rise to informed decisions. Structured data can be leveraged across different systems and activities. Trustworthy data means the output can be trusted too.
Data curation and structuring, which lies at the heart of Vizlegal, is what lets features, search and insights be built for practitioners, and built with confidence.
For AI models such as Claude or OpenAI, data is their lifeblood: the flour to their cake. They rely on it to identify patterns, make predictions and generate output, and that output can only be as good as the data beneath it.
Nowhere is this clearer than in court litigation, where cross-checked citations, accurate diary dates and local syntax matter. Other sources - the Data Protection Commission, WRC, IPAT and others all come with their own peccadillos. Simply pointing an AI tool at whatever is publicly available misses the value of the experience and relationships that keep veracity to the fore.
Forces impacting on adoption
The integration of AI now seems inevitable. Where it lands across the legal services value chain will come down to three forces:
Choice: firm leadership, strategic planning, awareness of legal tech, firm culture.
Competition: between firms, and increasingly with self-service options from public bodies and technology companies.
Clients: will they demand AI, or ask how their data interacts with these models?
And underpinning all three is a fourth C,
Condition: AI will only perform if your house is in order, your data is structured and a programme to bring vital firm and client data into a standardised format.
Within legal AI itself (Harvey, Legora and others), the same forces will play out: new entrants, open-source options, fragmentation by tier and use case, the build-versus-buy debate. But one thing is immutable. The value of data, and its integrity, will only come further to the fore.
An invitation
For the smaller firm, none of this need be cause for anxiety. It is closer to an invitation: get your data in order, choose tools that respect its integrity, and let the technology earn its place in the work, on your terms.
Alongside Research, Workflows and Insights, Vizlegal is interested to work with more firms and public bodies in preparing their legacy and current data in order to optimise their AI and legal tech investment.
Case study: Vizlegal in practice
Profile: A regional general practice, four solicitors and two legal executives, with a busy caseload spanning child and family law (Circuit Court), High Court insolvency, planning and conveyancing.
Challenge: The familiar pressures: staff retention, operating margins, pace of work and rising client expectations.
Solution: The legal diary now integrates with Outlook, so future case listings populate automatically and no one checks the diary by hand. Alerts track Guardian ad Litem developments, with judgment summaries delivered as they land. High Court filings by the opposing side trigger automatic alerts, supporting client care and litigation outcomes. Workflows on planning appeals help the firm meet tight deadlines.
If you want to talk through what getting your firm’s data in order would look like in practice, get in touch at vizlegal.com/contact and we will walk you through the sources that matter to your practice.
💡 Author: Vizlegal Head of Sectoral Engagement, Cormac Culáin.