Lawyers who embrace artificial intelligence will have an advantage over practitioners who resist the technology, advocate Kenneth Wilson of MMC Asafo said, as the legal profession grapples with the growing impact of AI on legal practice.
Wilson, speaking on the sidelines of the Law Society of Kenya Annual Conference in Diani, said AI was no longer a technology of the future but an increasingly important part of contemporary legal practice.
“We have instances where many have argued that artificial intelligence is here to replace lawyers. To the contrary, lawyers who adapt to the use of artificial intelligence are the ones who will replace the lawyers who do not want to adapt to it,” Wilson said.
He said the key challenge for advocates was therefore not whether AI would enter the profession, but whether lawyers would develop the skills needed to use the technology responsibly and effectively.
The Law Society of Kenya has made progress in sensitising advocates on AI and encouraging them to explore tools that can support legal research, document review and other professional tasks, Wilson said.
He added that the Judiciary had also started incorporating AI into some of its operations, including the processing and summarisation of large volumes of documents, signalling a broader technological shift across the justice sector.
He cautioned lawyers against relying blindly on AI-generated material, saying technology could not replace professional judgment, legal reasoning or an advocate’s ethical obligations.
He said some lawyers had already faced serious consequences in other jurisdictions after submitting fictitious cases and legal authorities generated by AI.
“There are very many cases where lazy people in the practice would decide to feed prompts to the tools to assist, and the tools would come up with cases that are non-existent,” he said.
Lawyers, he said, remain responsible for everything they present to a court, regardless of whether the material was generated by an AI system.
Every case, statute, precedent or factual assertion produced with the assistance of AI should therefore be independently verified before being used in pleadings, submissions or other court documents, Wilson said.
He described AI as an augmentative tool that should help lawyers work more efficiently rather than operate as a substitute for legal analysis.
“It is more of embracing that AI is here. It is not even the future; it is the current, and ensuring that you do as much as possible to learn how to positively use the tools to make your work easier,” he said.
Wilson also dismissed concerns that AI would inevitably widen the gap between wealthy and less-resourced lawyers and clients.
While advanced AI platforms may require paid subscriptions, he said basic AI capabilities were becoming increasingly accessible through widely used consumer technologies.
He cited Google’s Gemini and AI-enabled smartphone functions as examples of tools that have broadened access to AI.
“Not everyone, let’s use Gemini, Google has Gemini. It’s part of your, for those using Androids. For those using Apple, they also have their AI,” he said.
According to Wilson, technological competence could ultimately matter more than financial resources in determining who benefits from AI.
“There are those who are wealthy but don’t know how to use the tools. The fact that it is there and knowing how to use it, that is all that counts, irrespective of your wealth status,” he said.
His comments come as Kenya’s legal profession increasingly debates the ethical, regulatory and practical implications of AI in legal research, document management and judicial administration.
Wilson urged lawyers to pursue continuous professional development and improve their technological literacy while maintaining the independence of their professional judgment and their duty to the courts.
The future of legal practice, he said, would favour lawyers capable of combining technology with sound legal reasoning, professional ethics and effective advocacy.
Rather than threatening the profession, AI could become a tool that strengthens legal practice, provided advocates retain responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work, Wilson said.
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