Artificial intelligence is no longer just a novelty in the legal industry — it’s outperforming human lawyers in some tasks. A new study from LegalBenchmarks.ai shows that AI systems are drafting contracts with reliability scores that edge out their human counterparts, all while working in seconds rather than minutes.
AI’s Edge in Contract Drafting
The Phase 2 LegalBenchmarks study compared human lawyers to leading AI systems on contract drafting tasks. The results were striking: the top-performing AI tool delivered a 73.3% reliability score, slightly higher than the 70% achieved by human lawyers.
Speed was another decisive factor. Human lawyers averaged 12 minutes per task, while AI generated drafts almost instantly. For clients accustomed to waiting days for first drafts, this shift signals a potential revolution in service delivery.
Even more surprising, some AI systems flagged risks that lawyers missed. These included problematic clauses, overlooked inconsistencies, and boilerplate issues — the kinds of details that can later trigger disputes.
Where Humans Still Win
Yet, the report makes clear that lawyers aren’t going anywhere. While AI excels in speed and consistency, humans retain an advantage in areas requiring commercial judgment, contextual awareness, and nuanced decision-making.
When a task was poorly specified or required interpreting a patchwork of documents, human lawyers adapted better. They were also more effective in tailoring advice to a client’s unique goals — something no model could replicate.
As the report concludes: “AI tools now match or exceed human performance on many tasks, but human oversight remains critical for context and nuance.”
The Hybrid Future of Legal Work
The future of contract drafting isn’t “AI vs. human” but rather AI plus human. For straightforward, repetitive drafting, AI offers unprecedented efficiency. For high-stakes negotiations, sensitive client contexts, and messy real-world fact patterns, lawyers remain indispensable.
This hybrid model also raises new professional questions. Who is liable when an AI-drafted clause leads to a dispute? How much human review is required before sending a draft to a client? And how should junior lawyers be trained if much of their traditional drafting work is now automated?
Implications for Canada
For Canadian law firms and in-house teams, the implications are profound. Legal AI could help expand access to justice by reducing costs and speeding up turnaround. But it may also disrupt traditional billing models, pressure junior lawyers’ career paths, and force regulators to update professional rules.
The study suggests that the conversation should no longer be about whether AI can draft contracts, but about how law firms will integrate it responsibly. The tools may draft faster, but judgment still rests with the human lawyer.