Dec 30, 2024 | AI

I recently talked with Legaltech news’ Ben Joyner about generative AI in the legal space, touching on everything from our company’s M&A strategy to how CoCounsel is transitioning to a multi-model product. Talking with Ben about how generative AI has shaped our industry over the past year has me reflecting on my first year with Thomson Reuters. 

Continued climb in law firm productivity 

I joined Thomson Reuters in February, and a notable way we’ve seen the impact of generative AI solutions is the uptick in lawyer productivity. For the first time in years, Q2 saw a majority of law firms experience productivity growth. By Q3, an astounding 64% of law firms reported productivity growth, building on the gains made in Q2.  

This uptick underscores how technology is key to boosting law firm profitability. Law firms that invest in new technology as well as adopt AI and generative AI solutions to streamline workflows and improve the efficiency and quality of their work are best positioned to improve client satisfaction and drive sustainable productivity growth. 

Build, buy, partner strategy 

I’m pleased with the progress Thomson Reuters has made on our vision to provide all the legal professionals we serve with a professional-grade GenAI assistant to augment their work. We’ve committed to investing $100 million annually in AI over the coming years, including investing more than $200 million to incorporate responsible AI into our solutions in the past year alone.   

This year we continued investing in the latest technology through our build, buy, partner program. On the buy side in the legal space, our acquisition of Safe Sign Technologies – a UK legal large language model (LLM) startup – in August is proving a great fit. We’re incorporating Safe Sign’s tech and talent into our industry-leading content and expertise to bring customers even greater quality and performance from our AI solutions.  

On the build side, we introduced 19 legal generative AI solutions in 2024. Highlights include CoCounsel 2.0, the professional-grade GenAI assistant; Claims Explorer, a generative AI skill available in Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel; CoCounsel Drafting, an end-to-end drafting solution that streamlines and improves the drafting process for legal professionals within Microsoft Word; and Mischaracterization Identification in Quick Check and AI Jurisdictional Surveys – two generative AI research features that help customers save substantial time and deliver greater confidence that legal research is accurate, thorough, and complete. We also delivered deeper integration of CoCounsel into Westlaw and Practical Law. 

On the partner side, we’re working with Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and others on plugins and integrations to enhance the generative AI-powered capabilities in our solutions. Every aspect of our build, buy, partner strategy is geared toward helping our customers automate their workflows, provide powerful insights to their clients and drive efficiencies.   

A maturing market  

2024 saw the implementation of legal generative AI solutions as well as efforts to benchmark these solutions. Our benchmarking support is reflected in our participation in studies including Vals.ai plus two consortium efforts – from Stanford and Litig – exploring how to best evaluate legal AI.  

I believe that benchmarking can improve both the development and the adoption of AI, but it’s just one component in how we consider and understand the benefits AI delivers for our customers. I look forward to our ongoing collaboration with customers and industry partners as we continue working to minimize inaccuracies and increase the usefulness of the research outcomes for generative AI solutions. 

To date, 15% of law firms have adopted and implemented legal-specific generative AI solutions. I anticipate we’ll soon see a wave of fast followers – eager to be perceived as innovative – that will dramatically strengthen generative AI implementation. 

I can’t think of a more exciting time to have joined a business. Where our industry is at now mirrors the early internet era: initial excitement, followed by strategic integration.  

We’re fast approaching a maturing market where legal professionals will not just desire but require AI capabilities for their workflows. We’ll see more implementation of generative AI solutions among legal professionals as they increasingly realize the tangible benefits.   

For more on how generative AI is shaping the future of the legal profession, please check out my Legaltech news interview.  

This is a guest post from Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, Thomson Reuters.