'Do You Really Think We're Going To Get Rid Of Lawyers?' Says Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt — Predicts AI Will Only Make Jobs More Complex

"Do you really think we're going to get rid of lawyers?" former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently asked, warning that artificial intelligence will complicate legal work—not eliminate it. 

During a TED interview in Vancouver in April , he called AI a "career-defining" shift. Schmidt urged every industry to "adopt it, and adopt it fast." He argued that AI is already transforming office environments, clinics and courtrooms by making jobs "more sophisticated, not quickly obsolete."

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AI Adoption Accelerates Across Industries

Schmidt pointed to his March investment in Relativity Space, a California-based rocket startup, as an example of AI's learning potential. "It's an area that I'm not an expert in, and I want to be an expert," he told the audience, noting that large-language models helped him quickly grasp propulsion concepts

"You are not going to lose your job to AI, but you are going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI," chipmaker Nvidia NVDA CEO Jensen Huang echoed that message in May at the Milken Institute Global Conference. Huang added that companies are already building gigawatt-scale "AI factories" that will affect every role.

Legal Sector Faces Major Changes

Harvey,the company behind the generative AI assistant being tested by law firms and PwC's legal team, recently closed a $300 million Series E round, valuing the company at $5 billion.

Schmidt said studies predict AI could boost productivity by 30% annually—figures he said economists "have no models for." 

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Adoption Grows, But Transformation Lags

According to McKinsey, 78% of organizations had rewired operations around AI as of last year, though only 5% have fully transformed even a single business domain. 

The Wall Street Journal reported the trend is less about hype and more about staying ahead before it’s too late. PepsiCo's PEP chief strategy and transformation officer, Athina Kanioura, told the Journal that company leaders aren't pouring money into AI just because it's exciting—they're doing it because they worry it could reshape the entire way they do business.

Still, law firms remain cautious. A Financial Times analysis in December found firms enforcing human review layers to protect client data even as custom-built algorithms accelerate discovery. The pattern supports Schmidt's view that AI raises professional standards instead of sweeping workers aside.

Even so, Schmidt reminded the audience at TED in Vancouver that transformation will not finish overnight. "One thing to remember is that this is a marathon, not a sprint," he said, urging workers to recalibrate skills daily as the technology vaults forward.

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