Criminal cases look set to be prepared by artificial intelligence instead of lawyers, according to SFO director David Green. In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Mr Green predicted it would become the norm within years for algorithms to examine evidence as they were more reliable, faster and cheaper than lawyers. He estimated that the change would reduce the cost of preparing for trials by up to 90 per cent. 

Rolls-Royce investigation

Mr Green said the technology was used by the SFO to scan 30 million documents in its investigation into Rolls-Royce over bribery in overseas markets and would normally hire barristers. With the technology it took about a tenth of the time and was more reliable. He said SFO figures from the case revealed 600,000 documents a day could be processed by AI compared to about 300 by a lawyer.