Artificial Intelligence in legal services took one step closer to reality today as Thomson Reuters announced it had joined up with IBM’s AI machine Watson.
Reuters will use Watson to analyse complex data and to increase the speed and precision of business decisions for its law firm and professional services clients.
News of the collaboration will once again stir up a long debated issue among legal professionals: the potential displacement of lawyers in favour of sophisticated computers.
Watson has been touted as the most significant technology ever to come to law. It works to “learn” by building on information it has gathered.
Its development has been carefully watched by the global legal market, with providers looking to utilise the technology to cut costs.
Among those keeping a watchful eye on Watson is Clifford Chance global head of innovation Bas Boris Visser. Last month at The Lawyer Business Leadership Summit Visser spoke about how the AI software would soon be capable of dong the same work currently carried out by trainees and paralegals.
IBM senior vice president Mike Rhodin said partnering with Reuters would combine Watson’s’ “cognitive capabilities” with the company’s “decision making solutions across science, legal, tax and finance”.
IBM has invested $1bn into the cognitive computer technology, which has already found its way into the legal market through the University of Toronto’s ‘Ross’ machine, dubbed the world’s first ”Watson-powered lawyer”.
Without doubt this approach is to be a game change in the legal sector over potentially less than the next decade. Here at DWF we have been speaking to IBM and the Watson team for two years and are watching this space very carefully. For all firms but particularly those in the large mid space, the corporate shopper is already inflicting challenges on price. Cognitive approaches to unstructured big data should, for many lawyers, allow them to focus on the aspects of transactions requiring their skill and will in the first iteration, reduce much of the work in the foot hills of many transactions.
The rate of progress in cognitive computer technology is remarkable. It is not just the likes of IBM but small London based companies like Ravn who are leading the way and providing an array of services to law firms – everything from due diligence to contract governance.
Dear Turkeys
Christmas is a time of year welcomed by much of the world: while disadvantageous to you it would be mean spirited to vote against it. Indeed we would invite you to hand over a large chunk of your revenue to ensure that you will not exist next year. After all; your disappearance will mean that you have no further need for capital.
Legal services are clearly nothing more than a process underpinned by insurance. Lawyers are invited to plough their money into tech and insurance stock and retire.