PUBLISHED ONApril 21, 2026 11:35 AMBYSean LerEven though the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in litigation is at an early stage, its pace of evolution, client expectations and global competition are coalescing to bring the legal industry to an inflexion point, said Minister for Law Edwin Tong on Tuesday (April 21).
He was speaking at the 2026 Litigation Conference organised by the Law Society, themed "The human essence of advocacy in an AI-enhanced world".
Tong, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, was formerly co-head of Allen and Gledhill's litigation and dispute resolution department, and concurrently head of its restructuring and insolvency practice. He was appointed a senior counsel in 2015.
Looking back at the past 200 years of Singapore's legal system, Tong said that Singapore's present stature — with nearly half of the world's multinational corporations having their Asia-Pacific headquarters here — is a reflection of the trust in the city state's legal system and in its rule of law.
He urged the legal sector to continue being outward facing and forward leaning, so that it can capitalise on the trust to continue being an attractive place for businesses, which Tong said will, in turn, create good jobs for Singaporeans and contribute to the economy.
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Turning to the adoption of AI, the Law Minister noted that while developments are still nascent, they point to a future where litigation strategy will be increasingly shaped by computational analysis alongside legal reasoning.
As a consequence of this, Tong said that clients who are already using AI tools may come to expect faster turnaround times, greater emphasis on higher-value contributions from lawyers, such as in strategy and risk assessment, and an expectation that firms must use AI in all their cases for efficiency.
But even as AI capabilities expand, the role of the litigator remains indispensable, Tong said.
He added: "...It remains far less effective, and is likely to remain so, in the domain of litigation practice: oral advocacy in court; cross-examination of witness; assessing credibility and human behaviour on the spot in a dynamic fashion; making real-time judgement calls under pressure during proceedings."
To this end, he urged lawyers to focus on "distinctly human" qualities such as intuition, persuasion, timing, and judgement, taking AI as an augmentation, not substitution of their work.
Reiterating the support which his ministry had set out, such as the Legal Innovation and Future-Readiness Transformation initiative, and the guide for using generative AI in the legal sector, Tong said the ministry is also considering allocating a portion of continuing professional development points directly to AI-related courses.
He also called on the legal sector, as a collective, to "engage intentionally and deliberately", and to "enhance and embed" the changes brought about by AI.
"Singapore's legal system has endured and adapted, and I would say, significantly enhanced, over the last two centuries because it has never been static.
"It has evolved with the times, whilst always remaining anchored in trust, fairness, professionalism, and deep adherence to the rule of law. And that same spirit of adaptation must guide us today," Tong added.
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