Are Judges the Next To Adopt AI? Is That a Good Thing?
Episode 46 of Legally Disrupted Has the Two Best Experts on the Topic
I can’t wait for AI to replace judges. It cannot happen soon enough. And, now that I’ve said that, I hope I don’t have to appear in front of a human judge anytime soon.
Hey there, I’m Zach Abramowitz and I am Legally Disrupted.
In 2025, one of the biggest trends we tracked was the widespread adoption of AI by lawyers. According to a spat of surveys from Wharton, Law360, Thomson Reuters, and the ACC, AI usage in the legal profession officially flipped from a minority to a clear majority.
But in the courts, AI has been something of a blooper reel. Just this week, a prestigious litigation partner at Sullivan & Cromwell had to grovel before the court about an emergency motion the firm submitted that was filled, nay riddled, with AI hallucinations.
This brings us to an admitted, glaring double standard between lawyers and judges. Lawyers are totally fine with lawyers using AI, but those same lawyers become apoplectic at the thought of judges or arbitrators using AI. It is very much “AI for me, but not for thee.” A survey last year from White & Case and Queen Mary University of London School of Law showed that nearly 90% of lawyers were deeply supportive of AI for their own research and analytics, but that support drops to just 23% when it comes to a judge or arbitrator using it to make a decision.
It’s not just vibes, there is also a regulatory double standard. Under Annex 3 of the EU AI Act, AI used in the administration of justice or alternative dispute resolution is explicitly classified as “high-risk,” and requires different disclosures than ordinary AI use cases.
So, what is really going on here? This isn’t just about the law; it is about public sentiment towards AI. For the last few years, we’ve been taught that AI is just a “copilot” or a helper. But now, in 2026, we’re talking about AI acting as an agent that takes actions and makes decisions. Giving a machine that kind of power is anxiety producing, and most people want products that are anxiety reducing.
Yet, despite that hullabaloo, there is a massive need for alternative forms of intelligence in our courts. Right now, the system is drowning. We have state court trial judges disposing of 2,500 cases a year, meaning they have barely half an hour to spend on a single case. We are simply not going to lawyer our way out of this 50-year backlog. If we just use humans, we have a massive demand for intelligence but a severely limited supply. AI could step in to give these judges the capacity they desperately need for the courts to actually function.
Now, skeptics will say, “But what we must preserve the human element.” Do we, though? I thought Lady Justice is blind. Think about that. We explicitly acknowledge that judges can’t be too human because the “too human” part gets in the way of making a fair, unbiased decision. Plus, human judges make plenty of mistakes, which is exactly why our entire system requires appellate courts to correct them.
The two people who understand this better than anyone else are my guests on Episode 🎙️ 46 of Legally Disrupted: Shlomo Klapper and Bridget McCormack. Shlomo is the founder of Learned Hand, which is building an AI decision-support tool specifically designed to give judges that desperately needed capacity. Bridget is the former Chief Justice of the Michigan State Supreme Court, who is now the CEO and President of the American Arbitration Association. (And by the way, Bridget and I cohost the AAAi Podcast, so make sure to check that out!). You can watch the full episode right here in the embedded link.
If you prefer your podcasts in audio find Zach Abramowitz is Legally Disrupted on Apple and Spotify. Subscribe to this newsletter is also highly recommended, especially by me!
Know someone who wants to be disrupted (legally of course)? Share the disruption.
Want to be disrupted in person? Come see me in Colorado next week, I’ll be the opening keynote at ILTA EVOLVE. A number of readers have already reached out to let me know they will be there. If you have plans to attend, please make sure to find me.
PS AI for legal talk on X has new life. You may be missing out. Here’s the X post of the week to entice you. Click it and come join the conversation.
