PUBLISHED ONMarch 06, 2026 2:27 PMBYSean LerSingapore's legal profession is standing at "one of the most consequential crossroads" in its history, with artificial intelligence (AI) set to automate about 44 per cent of legal tasks, said Minister for Law Edwin Tong.
Tong, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, was speaking at a forum titled "The next charter: Shaping Singapore's legal future", organised by the Ministry of Law on Friday (March 6).
The event, held at Raffles City Convention Centre, saw over 850 participants, including lawyers, in-house counsel, institutional representatives, law academics, practice trainees, and law students.
Turning to the advent of technology, particularly AI, Tong acknowledged that these will have a "profound and significant impact" on the legal profession given its ability to conduct research, organise documents, and handle the front and back ends of legal work.
"At the same time, I believe that AI will not replace the human lawyer, at least not for the foreseeable future.
"But the human who adopts and uses AI better will replace the human who does not," the law minister said.
Pointing to how Singapore has consistently ranked well in absence of corruption, civil justice and criminal justice system, enforcement, order, security and regulation, Tong explained that these "carefully nurtured" systems have allowed Singapore to build a trusted professional services hub, including the legal industry.
He said: "They choose Singapore because they see opportunities in this part of the world. They see Singapore's position as a hub for the region.
"And there is deep trust and confidence in our legal system, which we can never take for granted."
In this backdrop, Tong expressed confidence that Singapore's legal profession can navigate disruptions "from a position of strength", but cautioned that Singapore cannot afford to be left behind.
"We either move up the value chain, or we will be overtaken. So, we know the urgency, and we have introduced initiatives to help the legal industry along."
Following the pilot of the Legal Innovation and Future-Readiness Transformation (Lift) initiative launched in June 2025, the Ministry of Law will expand the programme to more firms.
It aims to support law firms in change management and transformation amidst the adoption of AI.
"Transforming in the space of AI is not just about putting money on the table. It's not just about financial resourcing, although that is important, because many smaller firms may well face the challenge of economies of scale. That's a significant threshold to cross."
Beyond products, the law minister said that change management is equally important.
"It's about how you run the back end, how you run the front end, how you train your lawyers to use it, and how you interface with clients — with the technology that you have," he explained.
Alongside the expansion of Lift, Tong also announced the launch of a guide for using generative AI (GenAI) in the legal sector.
However, the guide will not be "hard code" at this stage, to avoid driving away innovators and innovation, he said, adding that it is not the right time as the evolution of technology is "far from the end".
The guide will instead set out the framework and the parameters for the use of GenAI.
Closing his address, Tong set out his vision for the Singapore's legal future — one which will demand more vision, adaptation, innovation, and he emphasised — collaboration.
"If you want to go fast, you go alone. But if you want to go far, we go together. And I believe that if you go together, we will not just go far, we will lead. We will build something that lasts. We will build something continues through the next charter for us," Tong added.
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