Insights from HiiL’s webinar on how artificial intelligence may help small businesses access justice
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) make up around 90% of all businesses worldwide. They are the shop owners, farmers, designers, and traders who keep local economies running, provide jobs but when things go wrong, justice is often hard to reach. As HiiL’s Ronald Lenz put it, SMEs are “the actual heartbeat of local economies,” yet for millions of small business owners, “the justice system feels distant or slow or simply too expensive.” That gap framed the discussion at HiiL’s recent webinar, which explored how artificial intelligence can help make legal support more effective for those building their livelihoods.
The promise of AI for access to justice
The conversation turned to how AI can actually help close that gap. Used responsibly, it can make legal help easier to find, simpler to understand, and cheaper to access.
Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, explained how AI tools are already expanding access to justice. “It can be accessed 24 hours a day, often in multiple languages, without users having to travel or navigate intimidating interactions with lawyers and judges,” she said. AI can now assist with research, draft basic documents, and even help resolve disputes. But, she added, there are limits. “Human judges have to be able to conduct meaningful review of automated decisions,” Satterthwaite warned, noting that fairness and accountability must stay at the center as AI moves deeper into legal systems.
Innovators building justice tech for SMEs
The first panel featured entrepreneurs using AI to make legal processes faster and easier for small businesses. Contend Legal helps individuals and small companies navigate legal issues through an AI-driven triage tool. It gathers information, drafts documents, and connects users to legal experts. Founder Michael Stych explained that Contend was intentionally designed as a low-stress environment, particularly helpful for users who would otherwise feel alienated in their pursuit of justice. From Tunisia, E-Tafakna founder Norchen Mezni described how her company helps small businesses formalize relationships before disputes arise. “They sign deals informally, they work on trust…until something goes wrong, and when it does, it’s already too late,” she said. E-Tafakna’s AI tools generate contracts and explain laws in Arabic, French, and English, drawing from locally verified legal data.
E-Arbitrator, led by Angelo Kweli, provides online dispute resolution services through a network of over 600 arbitrators in 75 countries. Its AI chatbot Salomon guides users through the arbitration process and can be embedded directly on law firm websites. Kweli noted that while AI brings efficiency, smaller innovators may soon face competition from large tech companies entering the legal field: “At a certain point these companies are going to want to provide this service… I think of them as future competition, and that should worry us.”
Navigating the pitfalls
While the potential is clear, the speakers were candid about the pitfalls. AI tools trained on data primarily in English often struggle to adapt to the linguistic and legal realities of other cultural contexts. Digitizing local laws and training models on region-specific data remains an expensive and complex challenge. Satterthwaite reminded participants that technology should be built around people’s actual needs, not the other way around. In some contexts, the best solution may still be low-tech or community-based rather than AI-driven.
Building the ecosystem for AI and justice
The second panel turned to what’s needed to help these kinds of solutions scale responsibly, covering policy, regulation, and investment.
Bishop Famubode argued that governments should treat AI for justice as critical infrastructure, not a luxury. “You having the AI for justice pillar as an infrastructure is just smart economics,” he said. Faster, fairer dispute resolution boosts productivity and investor confidence. Varun Hemachandran of Agami shared how his organization is helping India’s overwhelmed legal system by building networks of innovators outside formal courts. “We need to start looking at justice as a service that meets people where they are,” he said, describing Agami’s collaborations with both the Supreme Court and global tech companies to localize AI models for Indian languages.
Maya Markovich,Vice President at AAA-ICDR Institute and Executive Director at Justice Tech Association works with impact-driven startups and emphasized the need for flexible regulation that keeps pace with technology. She advocated for safe spaces for experimentation and new financing models for justice innovation. “You should not have to have money to have rights,” she said. “Technology that is B2C, including for small businesses, helps level the playing field.”
Scaling responsibly
For small businesses, the problem isn’t theoretical. A missed contract, a delayed payment, or a bureaucratic obstacle can threaten not just profit, but survival. Scaling justice tech responsibly means making solutions actually usable for SMEs, not just impressive on paper. That includes simple interfaces, clear guidance in local languages, and practical workflows that fit into the day-to-day of running a business. Trust matters most. Small businesses often operate on relationships and informal agreements. Introducing a digital tool is only helpful if it feels reliable and safe. Without that trust and accessibility, even the most sophisticated system won’t reach those who need it most.
A cautious optimism
The outlook is cautiously hopeful, if the lens stays with SMEs. Small business owners are often juggling multiple roles: entrepreneur, accountant, HR manager, and sometimes legal advisor. Tools that reduce friction by preventing disputes before they start can make a huge difference. Scaling justice tech successfully for SMEs means understanding their context, cash flow pressures, and risk tolerance. Done right, these innovations may help small businesses survive and thrive in systems that have long overlooked them.
