The decide proudly notes that she will be able to now difficulty as much as 20 rulings in per week, a considerable enhance from the 4 rulings she managed earlier than adopting Copilot.
She makes use of the AI assistant each day for transcriptions, summarizing hearings and drafting numerous judicial paperwork. Copilot additionally aids in reviewing grammar and wording, evaluating draft rulings and managing inside knowledge.
“For us, that is magic… These instruments have come to facilitate and enhance judicial work,” Quiñones says.
A far-reaching AI plan
Colombia’s judiciary is among the many first in Latin America to embrace AI. The nation’s constitutional court docket dominated in 2024 that judges might use AI instruments to hurry up processes underneath particular guidelines.
The judicial governing physique then issued laws in December, mandating that judges evaluation and confirm any AI-generated data and disclose its use. The laws additionally prohibit the usage of free AI chatbots and the usage of AI to “assess proof, scrutinize information, make worth judgments, or resolve authorized issues,” like drafting remaining rulings.
On the identical time, digital hearings have turn into more and more frequent in Colombia. What started as a necessity in 2020 throughout the pandemic, has turn into a staple within the nation’s judicial course of. In 2024, digital hearings grew to 1.1 million, accounting for round 80% of whole hearings, with Groups turning into the unique supplier in October.
Johanna Pimiento, a high Colombian judicial official, stated the first motivation for utilizing AI is the excessive degree of backlog charges. Picture by Johanna Pimiento.
The Copilot beta program, launched final yr, is about to increase to some 150 members, together with judges and clerks, says Johanna Pimiento, head of digital transformation at Colombia’s judicial governing physique.
The first motivation for utilizing AI is the excessive degree of backlog charges, Pimiento factors out. “Judges are always overwhelmed … they usually want to have the ability to present extra well timed responses. That’s why we’re eager to begin utilizing AI instruments.”
Greater than 2.5 million circumstances have been pending decision in 2023, the newest yr out there, which represents half of all circumstances, in accordance with Colombia’s judicial authority. The common caseload for a Colombian decide in 2023 exceeded 800 circumstances. An administrative ruling, as an illustration, takes 10 years on common to be resolved, in accordance with the judicial authority’s knowledge.
Using expertise doubled the quantity of whole hearings within the nation within the final 14 years, to almost 1.4 million in 2024, Pimiento says, and the introduction of Copilot is predicted to additional improve judges’ productiveness and effectivity.
Whereas some judges are immune to digitalization, most have welcomed the shift, recognizing the advantages of AI in making their work extra manageable, Pimiento says, though correct coaching, knowledge privateness and potential knowledge breaches are among the many high challenges.
Microsoft’s privateness insurance policies and dedication to knowledge safety are a few of the key causes for Colombia’s judiciary to accomplice with the corporate, in accordance with the judiciary’s head of digital transformation. Copilot runs on Microsoft Azure, guaranteeing that customers retain possession of their knowledge, which is rarely shared with third events or used for advertising functions, she factors out.
Enchancment in effectivity
Potential advantages are manifold. Judges and their groups will be extra productive. Odd residents can achieve entry to justice whereas saving valuable time because of digital hearings since they don’t must journey to the courtroom, and it helps legal professionals too.
Roberto Serrato, a outstanding Colombian lawyer, estimates that digital hearings and AI have halved the period of judicial processes. Picture by Roberto Serrato.
Lawyer, Roberto Serrato, estimates that digital hearings and AI have lower the period of judicial processes in half, whereas additionally enhancing transparency and accountability of judges and different public officers by facilitating attendance for all events concerned. “The effectivity of the judiciary has vastly improved” with the usage of expertise, he says.
The probabilities of Copilot utilized to justice are nearly infinite, Quiñones provides: “It has a thousand spectacular issues … That is one thing we couldn’t humanly do earlier than.”
As an illustration, she not too long ago requested Copilot to match a draft ruling despatched by a colleague with all earlier rulings out there on one particular matter. She obtained a solution in seconds. With out Copilot, the decide says, her group would have spent a complete morning looking recordsdata. Quiñones makes use of inside knowledge—over 10,000 digitalized authorized circumstances gathered and archived through the years.
The decide has even created customized Copilot prompts to streamline her workflow whereas utilizing a number of different platforms, together with Microsoft Energy Automate and SharePoint, instruments that optimize work processes and handle content material. She then shares finest practices with the opposite judges taking part within the beta program via a Groups chat.
Born in Bogotá, Quiñones attended a navy college whereas pursuing a profession as a high-performance sprinter. Each experiences instilled in her the self-discipline and effectivity she now seeks to deliver to the judiciary, she says.
Her experiences as a police officer first and later as a lawyer, uncovered her to the challenges of the judicial system, sparking her curiosity in utilizing expertise to enhance entry to justice, a subject she ultimately explored in her thesis.
For the decide, the last word objective of integrating expertise is to supply higher public service, particularly to these with fewer sources, and be extra accountable.
It’s a priority that has significantly troubled her ever since she learn No One Writes to the Colonel, one in every of her favourite books by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, who was born within the Magdalena area.
Within the novella, a colonel waits endlessly for a authorities pension that by no means arrives, which Quiñones sees as a metaphor of the gradual tempo of justice: “That’s what occurs in Colombia’s justice system and in lots of different locations, folks ready and ready for years to get a solution from the administration.”
In the meantime, the decide can’t disguise her satisfaction in being acknowledged for her function within the integration of expertise and the usage of AI within the judiciary. She usually jokes that, not like different dad and mom who battle with even the TV distant, she teaches her two youngsters learn how to use gadgets.
“For me, it’s the other—I’m at all times the one exhibiting them how issues work,” Quiñones says with a smile.
High imagery: Colombian judged María Victoria Quiñones, was the orphanage of the as soon as of AI Marta, in Santa Marta. Picture by Federico Ríos Escobar.
