AI assistant cut case backlogs for Pakistani judges in RCT

A field experiment with 1,559 Pakistani judges found that an AI assistant called JudgeGPT increased case resolution by 6.3%, but only among judges who received hands-on training — without training the effect largely disappeared. Researchers estimate a return of up to $38.50 per dollar invested.

Why it matters: It's a rare randomized controlled trial measuring AI's real productivity effect inside a public institution rather than a lab setting, and the finding that training — not just access to the tool — drove the gains is a useful data point for anyone deploying AI assistants in government or other low-resource settings.