“Lawbots” will handle a quarter of internal requests to corporate legal department by 2023, according to Gartner Inc., a research and advisory firm.

“While [virtual legal assistants], legal chatbots, and lawbots may seem like hype, their use in legal departments can yield significant benefits,” said Zack Hutto, director in the Gartner Legal & Compliance practice. “This will significantly disrupt the legal technology marketplace.”

However, Gartner also cautioned that use of lawbots could backfire in some circumstances.

“Poor lawbot solutions might create an even greater burden on legal departments,” Hutto said. “At a minimum, lawyers could have to handle manual rework, and at worst they may have to work to repair relationships with put-off internal clients.”

Gartner predicted that 33% of corporate legal departments by 2023 will have a dedicated legal technology expert in place to support increased use of automation.