Horizon scanning: what should your business look out for in the next 10 years?

Insight
27 Mar 2022
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We’ve mapped out potential risks to the legal sector and those who practise within it. We’re delving into everything from artificial intelligence and digital futures to blockchain, privacy and climate risk.

Horizon Scanning reports: a deep-dive into emerging topics

Our Horizon Scanning reports are designed to cover a range of topics driving change in the next five to ten years.

Take a look at the topics we’ve explored so far.

1. Climate

Climate change is the greatest perceivable threat facing humanity. For the legal sector, the climate crisis brings new and complex problems around investments and assets, attribution, jurisdiction and accountability.

Take a look at how climate change could affect the legal sector:

To see the infographic about this topic, please refer to the live page.

2. Artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies

New business and management models are developing, as AI and emerging technologies are increasingly used for greater efficiency.

The pace of development and application of AI and other emerging technologies raises key challenges for the legal sector in terms of:

  • levels of expertise
  • ability to prepare for these trends, and
  • associated issues around perceptions of breach, harm, ethics and liability

Explore the impact of AI on our profession:

To see the infographic about this topic, please refer to the live page.

3. Geopolitical landscape

The possibilities of the geopolitical landscape raise questions around trade, political leadership and tensions between nationalism and globalisation, including:

  • attitudes to borders and immigration
  • cooperation on global problems, and
  • vulnerabilities in supply chains that see a return to regional existence
To see the infographic about this topic, please refer to the live page.

4. Data ethics and trust

Who will be able to own, access and use data in the future?

Digital footprints are now generated from infancy and there’ll need to be stronger regulation around data privacy, how data is treated and who owns it.

Increasingly, data expertise will be needed across all professions.

To see the infographic about this topic, please refer to the live page.

Snapshots: get talking with these conversation starters

Our Horizon Scanning snapshots are very short briefings about a topic, and contain questions to consider.

They’re designed to be used as discussion stimuli within your firm and legal teams.

Take a look at our snapshots:

Horizon Scanning radar

This Horizon Scanning radar plots the key events and drivers within political, economic, legal and technological fields on to a target map to show the timing and severity of their impact.

This radar maps the potential risks to the legal sector.

We are currently updating our Horizon Scanning radar.