Where AI helps in your firm, and where a human stays

AI gives you a fast answer. Even when it’s wrong, and always with the same confidence. That’s the real risk of automation for an SME or a law firm: not that AI can do too little, but that nobody checks what it does anymore.

Thomas Oppong recently wrote an article (“The Only Rare Skills You Need Right Now as AI Destroys Careers”) about the skills that matter in an AI world: judgement, asking the right question, taste, trust and curiosity. It’s about careers, but it’s also a good checklist for any automation project. Here’s how we apply those five at Automatable.

1. Judgement: knowing where AI fits, and where it doesn’t

The biggest decision in a project isn’t which tool we use. It’s which steps we automate and which we don’t.

At Advas Advocaten, AI helps draft submissions and summarise judgments. That saves the lawyers hours. But the lawyer reviews and decides. Nothing goes to a client automatically.

Our rule of thumb:

• AI yes: repetitive work, first drafts, summarising, sorting, follow-up.
• No AI without a human: legal advice, pricing agreements, anything a client reads directly.

2. Asking the right question

“We want to do something with AI” isn’t a good starting question. “Why does it take three days to onboard a new client?” is.

That’s why every project starts with your process, not the technology. Where is the repetitive work? Where do documents get lost in email? Who is waiting on whom? Only once that question is sharp do we choose the solution. Usually it’s a mix of a portal with role-based access and a few targeted automations.

3. Taste: don’t fool yourself

AI produces ten versions of a text, an email or a workflow in seconds. The skill is in choosing, cutting and checking.

What we never do: put something live because it worked in a test. We check with real data and real users, and verify that sources and numbers add up. Think, check, decide. Boring, but it’s the difference between a tool your team trusts and a tool nobody uses after three weeks.

4. Trust: a human stays within reach

In 2024 Klarna announced that its AI assistant had already handled 2.3 million customer conversations, the work of about 700 agents. A year later the CEO admitted service quality had suffered. The company is now bringing people back, so customers can always talk to a human if they want to.

For a law firm or a small service business, that matters even more. Your clients choose you, not your software. A good portal removes the searching and the scattered emails, so there’s more time left for the conversations that count.

5. Curiosity: don’t accept the first answer

Before we deliver anything, we ask one question: what would have to be true for this to go wrong? A client seeing the wrong document? An automatic email going to the wrong person? An exception nobody anticipated?

That question takes time. It saves a lot more later.

In short

• AI does the repetitive work. People make the decisions.
• Every project starts with the right question, not a tool.
• We test with real data before going live.
• Your clients can always reach a human.

Wondering where AI fits in your firm, and where it doesn’t? Book a free intro call.