AI Improves Patent Drafting, but Judgment Gains Favor Senior Lawyers, Working Paper Finds
Photo: TokenPost
AI improved patent-drafting performance in a three-month randomized trial, but the lasting gains in unaided professional judgment were concentrated among senior lawyers rather than junior participants. The September 2026 working paper covered 133 practicing patent lawyers at 11 U.S. intellectual-property law firms. Lawyers with access to an AI assistant improved their drafting scores by 0.34 standard deviations after 10 days and 0.38 standard deviations after 90 days. After the AI tool was removed, the lawyers completed an unaided task involving corrections to an error-filled patent.
Source: TokenPost
