The Ins and Outs of Intake with Pooya Abka
No one likes talking to a robot, yet as technology advances and demands for customer service increase, we are seeing a rise in the use of chatbots and automated responses. This has created an issue in most fields, but is especially heightened in the legal field, as automating the expertise of attorneys is not only risky, but incredibly difficult. Yet, the need for innovation still remains. On SEO Insider, Seth Price discussed this tension with Pooya Abka, the co-founder and CEO of Intaker who is working on bringing AI to the legal field with his startup.
How AI Is Improving Access to Legal Resources
During the interview, Seth and Pooya discussed how innovations in AI have and will continue to improve access to attorneys and their assistance for those in need. In the past individuals struggled to get in contact with attorneys due to business hour restrictions or not being able to take confidential calls without compromising their privacy. However, with advances in AI, and specifically with Intaker, individuals everywhere, regardless of location will have the ability to contact attorneys and get answers that are immediate, informed, and most of all, actually helpful.
How AI Is Helping Improve Intake for Lawyers
Aside from improving on-demand access to attorneys, AI has the potential to help improve intake for lawyers and their firms. Without AI integration, lawyers sift through large sums of calls and contact forms only to have around seventy percent of their initial contacts being usable as leads. Instead, these calls can range in topic from billing issues to students calling for research papers, or even issues outside of an attorney’s chosen practice area. Naturally, this creates both frustration for attorneys who are being contacted for things they cannot assist with, but also for potential clients who never hear back from anyone after their initial contact. AI’s role here, and what Intaker strives to do, is create better filters for those initial calls that benefit both the caller and the attorney being contacted. Through the use of decision trees, AI can be integrated into those initial calls and determine more efficiently if the caller’s needs will be met through the attorney’s services, who they would need to speak to next, or even if the chat box could answer it for the potential client itself. Thus, that initial issue is mitigated and both attorneys and clients leave happy simply by integrating AI.
Personal Touch and AI Integration
Near the end of the interview, Seth raised the concern that integrating AI into the legal field could cause harm as clients lose out on the personal touch and empathy they need. Pooya agreed that this is certainly a concern while moving forward with AI integration but that it does not have to be if you are thoughtful about what you are choosing to automate. That empathy aspect does not have to be lost, it simply has to be top of mind when creating these changes. The simplest way to do this is to consider what the client would need at a given stage, or what would make them feel like they know the managing partner of the firm. Intaker attempts to bridge that gap by integrating video and informed AI that is tailored to answer law-related questions.
At risk of becoming the next Blackberry, attorneys everywhere need to begin considering integrating AI not just for their intake, but to their firm as a whole. For more tips on how to integrate innovations into your marketing strategies and keep your law firm ahead of the curve, tune into next week’s episode of SEO Insider.