It’s true that document automation hasn’t changed very much over the past thirty years, but thanks to some innovative thinking, the product has finally started becoming more appealing. In this article, we discuss some of the ways in which document automation is helping firms to increase efficiency and improve client service.

Will artificial intelligence (“AI”) replace document automation coders, or will our industry continue to be more “IA” than “AI” in the foreseeable future? (“IA” stands for “Augmented Intelligence”, which is a complement and not a replacement for human intelligence. It's about computers and software helping humans become more effective and efficient at the tasks they're performing.)

When most people think of document automation, they usually imagine a simple merge of a document template with data captured on a keyboard. While that is indeed document automation, there is so much more that can be done to increase efficiency through the reuse of information and integration with other systems.

Today, almost every law firm or business uses some form of document automation – either as a stand-alone solution, or as part of a case management, CRM, or accounting system. Although it is widely acknowledged that document automation software is the most effective way to increase productivity and efficiency, some firms aren’t getting the return on investment they anticipated.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for small law firms to remain viable. Increased regulation, rising salary costs, increased competition, and commoditization is eroding margins. Even if only used in its most basic form, document automation has the highest return on investment of any law-firm software application because it saves time and increases accuracy. By choosing and implementing a solution that will grow as a firm’s needs evolve, it is possible to increase output without increasing costs.

In its simplest form Document automation (also called document assembly) is the creation of document templates which contain questions and conditional logic. When the template is run an interview or questionnaire is displayed for the user to complete, and on assembly, answers are merged into the template to produce a Microsoft Word and/or PDF document.