ELTA Predictions: Africa

Egypt

In fact, the ICT industry is known to be the fastest-growing sector in Egypt. The sector hit new heights, recording a growth rate of about 21.4%, outpacing all the state’s economic sectors during the fiscal year 2022/2023. 

In 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) will have the greatest impact, with many believing it would replace some tasks of lawyers, or strip out a layer of missions and revenue from law firms. In turn, this will bring about changes to their resourcing mix, creating business models and financial structures at law firms. It started introducing broadband universally across Egypt, including remote and underprivileged locations.

Developing a legal strategy, with proper impact analysis tools, strikes the balance between fostering innovation to allow for business expansion and creating proper safeguards to protect the interests of both the country and individuals. This goes together with the ongoing business reform environment, which needs to pay special attention to streamlining processes (as a prelude to effective digital transformation rather than automating existing red tape).

However, Technology will fully unleash its comprehensive impact only in combination with the growing cost pressures on lawyers, or the “more for less challenge” as well as with the liberalisation of legal services and, in particular, from allowing non-lawyers to compete on the legal market in the next 2030 sustainable plan in Egypt. Besides, many lawyers intuitively (and rightly) fear that computers may, at least partly, replace them and carefully accuse actors of creating positivistic agents that are not capable of evaluating humanity’s values, some principles & ethics and the “living nature” of law.

Mohamed Gomaa

ELTA Ambassador Egypt, Judge, State Commissioner Authority at the Egyptian Council of State

Photo by Magda Ehlers