AI Assistance Improved Patent Lawyers’ Work, but Durable Gains Favored Senior Lawyers

Summary

A pre-registered three-month randomized controlled trial gave 133 practicing patent lawyers at 11 U.S. intellectual property law firms access to a custom AI drafting assistant. Blinded expert patent attorneys scored both benchmark drafting tasks completed with AI and a later patent redlining task completed without it. AI access raised work quality by 0.34 standard deviations after 10 days and 0.38 standard deviations after 90 days, with larger gains among junior lawyers during assisted work. After three months, treated lawyers scored 0.32 standard deviations higher than controls on the unaided redlining task. That advantage was concentrated among senior lawyers, whose scores were 0.45 standard deviations higher, while junior lawyers showed no average improvement. Junior results instead became more dispersed, with fewer mediocre scores but more poor and more good scores. The authors conclude that foundational expertise may be necessary for turning AI-assisted practice into durable professional skill. The study was funded directly by Google, and several authors disclose employment, equity, or contractor relationships with Google.