Raghu Ramanathan Archives - ��VR��Ƶ Institute

The AI Implementation Gap Must Be Closed

jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:33:07 +0000

Law firms have shown they are very bullish on AI. Rightly so, when it comes to the core elements of the legal workflow – researching case law, pouring over documents to find the needles in the haystack, and drafting standardized documents like contracts, policies, and discovery requests – the agentic and generative AI (GenAI) solutions available today are helping firms cover more ground faster and more comprehensively than ever before possible.

Nearly half (47%) of law firm respondents from the Future of Professionals Report say their firms are already experiencing at least one type of benefit from AI adoption and 80% expect AI to fundamentally alter the course of their business over the next five years. Chief among those is time savings. On average, law firm professionals expect to free up 190 hours per year by using AI. At current average hourly rates, that works out to approximately $18,000 in savings per professional, per year – or a total of $20 billion for the U.S. legal industry.

Perception vs. Reality

For all the enthusiasm that exists for AI’s potential, however, there is a large gap emerging between law firms’ AI aspirations and their real-world AI strategies. Even though the majority of law firms expect AI to drive transformational change in the future and nearly half are experiencing some benefits now, far fewer (29%) expect to see high or transformational levels of change this year. When pressed further on what their firms are doing today to leverage AI, nearly one-third (32%) of law firm respondents say they feel their firms are moving too slowly on AI adoption, and just 22% say their firms have a visible AI strategy in place.

This gap between future ideals and current realities is a phenomenon “the GenAI paradox,” which occurs when businesses race to invest in AI pilot projects and buy new solutions, but struggle when it comes to implementing them and integrating them into everyday workflows. Versions of this struggle are playing out in virtually every industry right now as professionals come to grips with the fact that true transformation is not as simple as plugging in an off-the-shelf AI tool. It requires a clear strategy, a carefully planned roadmap, targeted integration of professional-grade AI solutions, and a commitment at all levels for the long haul. A firm cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer – it is imperative to have an AI strategy.

Key Steps to True AI Transformation

Over the course of our partnerships helping some of the world’s largest law firms not only access new AI capabilities, but , we’ve found four levers that all firms need to engage to ensure the success of their AI initiatives.

AI Tools Without an AI Strategy will Never Reach Their Potential: Among the 22% of law firms that currently have a visible AI strategy in place, 71% are already experiencing a clear return on investment from AI. By contrast, for those firms that do not have a clear AI strategy in place, just 18% are experiencing a return on investment. That means law firms with a visible AI strategy are almost four times more likely to experience benefits compared to firms without any significant plans for AI adoption.
AI Leadership Comes from the Top: Law firms helmed by leaders who lead by example when introducing change, firms that have added new governance roles, and those that are actively investing in AI are consistently seeing more benefits than those that don’t. For AI to truly add value, it needs to be implemented firm-wide, and that kind of sweeping change can only come with leadership support, clear goals and objectives, and widespread adoption.
Operations is Where the Hard Work Happens: Firm-wide AI integration is impossible without first understanding the need to change and reimagining workflows. To extract maximum value, AI-powered tools must be built directly into existing systems and processes. That requires making transformative changes to underlying business models, including how firms price, staff, and deliver legal work, and how they adapt related workflows and processes, while adding new roles and skills to support their operations.
End-User Adoption: The best AI technology and most well-thought-out strategy in the world will not mean anything if no one uses it. When users within law firms understand AI and feel empowerment, ownership, and accountability for its use, their law firms see results not only in terms of higher levels of AI adoption but in the additional benefits and ROI that they gain as well. Firms need to make sure they are educating staff, making tools readily available, and allowing time for a learning curve to take root.

While the detailed strategies and specific paths to AI implementation will vary from firm to firm, there are a handful of universal truths that apply to all. Foremost is the commitment to address the AI revolution for what it really is – a monumental transformation in the way legal work is conducted on par with the introduction of the personal computer, the internet, and the smartphone. It is not enough just to buy the latest greatest widget. Firms that want to extract real value from AI need to think hard about how it will affect everything they do and start addressing those changes now to unlock the full potential of the technology to transform their firm.

The Must-Have Skill for First Year Legal Associates: Adaptability

jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:35:43 +0000

As summer associate programs come to an end, another new generation of first year law firm associates is entering the professional workforce. While this historic rite of passage has deep roots in the rich tradition of apprenticeship and professional development that has sustained the legal profession for centuries, first-year associates face an unprecedented challenge: succeeding in an industry transforming at breakneck speed.

The most important skill new lawyers will need to thrive isn’t encyclopedic knowledge of case law, razor-sharp logic, or the ability to tolerate long hours – it’s adaptability. But what does that actually mean for a first-year associate starting their first job at a law firm? It means approaching the role as a continuous learner rather than someone who has “arrived” with their JD in hand.

Building An Adaptability Toolkit

Developing adaptability isn’t about becoming a generalist who can do everything – it’s about becoming someone who can quickly learn what each situation requires. Start by cultivating core habits and building your adaptability toolkit by:

Embracing technology: View legal technology as a collaborator, not a threat. The associates who thrive will be those who become fluent in leveraging the latest tools to produce higher-quality work more efficiently. According to a recent study, 28% of law firms are already using generative AI (GenAI) in their practices and 93% say GenAI will be a central part of their organization’s workflow within the next five years. So next time your firm introduces new research platforms or AI tools, volunteer to part of the beta test rather than waiting for mandatory training. This positions you as someone who embraces innovation rather than fears it.

Seek feedback on efficiency, not just accuracy: An adaptable associate might ask: “I completed this document review in eight hours – what would help me provide the same quality analysis in six hours next time?” This mindset shifts from time-based to value-based thinking, positioning new lawyers for success in an evolving market – and AI can help make this a reality by completing select tasks that take valuable time.

Participating in new experiences early in your career: Volunteer for cross-practice projects, client secondments, or firm innovation initiatives. The broader your exposure to different ways of practicing law, the more adaptable you’ll be when change inevitably happens. For example, if you’re a corporate associate, volunteer to help the litigation team with a discovery project – you’ll learn how the contracts you draft might be evaluated in disputes.

For first year associates to prove their value in this new world, it will require more than just hard work. You should put your energy toward higher-value tasks that put an emphasis on soft skills like adaptability, creativity, leadership, curiosity, and tech fluency. The work is no longer just about the volume of output produced; it is about leveraging all available resources – including technology – to achieve successful outcomes.

Lead Change, Don’t Just Follow It

To that end, adaptability remains the thing that will quickly separate the future leaders from the rest of the pack of first-year associates entering the legal workforce. While versatility as a skillset is not as easy to quantify as billable hours, it is a far more accurate measure of how well new attorneys are able to recognize new opportunities, embrace creative problem-solving, and adopt new approaches focused on achieving the best end result. This is the factor that will help law firms navigate the next decade of transformation – and the individuals prioritizing adaptability early in their careers will set themselves up as key drivers of the firm’s overall success.

Clients are demanding more value, transparency, and efficiency. Legal technology – from AI-assisted research tools to automated contract analysis – is redefining how law firms deliver services.

Today’s most effective legal professionals are those willing to rethink entrenched practices, test new technologies, and collaborate in ways that break down traditional silos. Adaptability in this context means not just keeping up with change but leading it. Start building your adaptability toolkit today, and you’ll be positioned to lead tomorrow’s legal innovations rather than scramble to catch up with them.

Beauty Is in the AI of the Beholder

jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 17:04:29 +0000

“Welcome to the era of the AI superlative. While the first two years of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) development were an all-out sprint to create new models, establish proof-of-concept solutions, and define optimal use cases, the next phase to deliver increased efficiency and better work product to clients in the AI lifecycle will be dominated by marketing as well.”

Raghu Ramanathan, president of Legal Professionals at ��VR��Ƶ, opened with these statements and shared his view on industry benchmarks in an article on Above the Law titled .

He noted as more companies develop AI solutions and start-ups seek capital investment, customers will look for benchmarks to evaluate these tools. ��VR��Ƶ does see value in benchmarking, however, Ramanathan added benchmarks must measure products the way they’re designed to be used and should focus on results customers care about.

“The challenge is that one-dimensional metrics do not offer a reliable representation of the real value of GenAI in the legal research process,” stated Ramanathan. “No LLM-based legal research products in the market today provide answers with 100% accuracy, so users must engage in a two-step process of 1) getting the answer and 2) checking the answer for accuracy.”

Chief Legal Operations Officer Meredith Williams-Range from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP discussed how they are using and seeing results from AI-enabled resources. “There is a widespread misperception around how law firms are using AI and how we conduct legal research. We are not bringing in AI and saying: ‘Go do all the research and write a brief,’ and then replacing all of our junior associates with automated results. We’re using AI-enabled tools that are integrated directly into the research and drafting tools we were using already, and, as a result, we’re getting deeper, more nuanced, and more comprehensive insights faster. We have highly trained professionals doing sophisticated information analysis and reporting, augmented by technology.”

Read the full article on , and as Ramanathan concludes, “the value of legal AI – of any technological innovation for that matter – is in how it gets used in the real world and how well all the different components come together to help lawyers do their jobs more effectively.”

Exploring AI’s Influence on the Legal Profession: Insights from Frost Brown Todd

jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 17:01:09 +0000

The legal profession is no stranger to change – noting that the change and its impact on the industry may be viewed very differently. But the rapid evolution of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), is presenting a unique set of opportunities and challenges.

, president of Legal Professionals at ��VR��Ƶ, recently hosted his inaugural podcast episode with Cindy Thurston Bare, chief data and innovation officer, and Kayla Kotila, senior knowledge & research services manager, from Frost Brown Todd.

Highlights from the conversation include:

Adoption and Use Cases: Frost Brown Todd has approximately 250 legal professionals actively integrating generative AI into their daily operations with impressive results. This adoption is not limited to specific tasks; instead, AI is being woven into existing workflows, signaling a fundamental shift in how legal work is conducted.

Measuring Success and Adoption: Success is measured by client satisfaction and efficiency improvements, and the firm uses qualitative feedback and quantitative methods, like A/B testing, to assess AI’s impact. Adoption is widespread across different demographics, with varying use cases depending on experience levels. Junior lawyers are leveraging AI to streamline certain tasks, while partners are using it to enhance their recall and decision-making processes.
Client-Centric Innovation and Collaboration: One key measure of success for technological implementation lies in its ability to enhance client service. From expediting document review processes to uncovering critical insights for litigation, AI enables the firm to deliver faster, more accurate, and ultimately more valuable services. The importance of open communication with clients regarding their AI initiatives is key. Sharing success stories, addressing concerns, and exploring potential applications collaboratively fosters trust and ensures that AI implementation aligns with client needs and expectations that benefit both parties.

Technology continues to move forward and law firms must prioritize a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and client-centricity to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive environment. The future of law is not about replacing lawyers with machines but rather empowering them with the tools and knowledge to deliver exceptional legal service.

As part of the Clarity podcast series from the ��VR��Ƶ Institute, Ramanathan will speak with customers, industry experts and colleagues, bringing perspectives from legal leaders and subject matter experts shaping the industry. The conversations aim to highlight the innovations driving the legal profession as well as the people and organizations implementing new technologies and approaches to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly changing market.

You can listen to the full conversation on either or .

How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Law: Challenges and Trends in the Legal Profession

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 09:02:08 +0000

Helping our customers achieve their desired outcomes while using ��VR��Ƶ products, solutions and services is at the core of what we do. We continually talk with our customers to learn firsthand about their experiences and how ��VR��Ƶ can apply cutting-edge technology to solve their biggest pain points.��

These conversations are more important than ever as generative AI becomes more widely implemented across the legal industry. As our customers’ – and their clients’ – expectations change, it’s crucial that we’re closely aligned with their collective needs.��

With this mind, ��VR��Ƶ and Lexpert hosted a featuring law firm leaders and industry experts discussing the challenges and trends around the use of generative AI in the legal profession. Below are insights from an engaging and informative discussion.��

Lawyers are excited to implement generative AI solutions��

Law firms may not have a reputation as early adopters of technology, yet many firms are already using generative AI solutions. David Cohen, senior director, client service delivery, McCarthy Tétrault, noted his firm’s response when it rolled out CoCounsel, the professional-grade GenAI assistant, a year ago.  ��

“We put a call out for people to sign up and get a license, and the 175 seats were immediately filled,” Cohen said. “There was a wait list where people were pleading to get access to the tool – there’s certainly a lot of interest and excitement at our firm.” ��

Panelists noted how firms are increasingly implementing AI for drafting legal documents as well as for predictive analytics and other complex tasks.��

Cohen said McCarthy Tétrault is using AI for higher-value work, including in litigation matters to scan data troves and identify where the firm has been successful in the past.  ��

“We’re very interested in how we get a strategic advantage,” Cohen said. “What arguments were used, what makes for a successful pleading – that’s something we can leverage.”  ��

Rikin Morzaria, principal at Kinara Law, said he’s “experimenting with and finding solutions that work long term,” including using AI for advanced tasks such as drafting memos or reviewing his own work to identify potential areas for improvement.��

“I treat it as something that would be submitted by a student or an intern, that needs to be reviewed again,” Morzaria said. “It ultimately produces a better product for me in the end.”��

Unfounded concerns about robot lawyers��

Panelists shared their perspectives on generative AI solutions augmenting, not replacing, humans.��

“AI doesn’t have human insight or instincts, it doesn’t know the client, it can’t read a room,” said Valerie McConnell, senior director of CoCounsel Customer Success at ��VR��Ƶ. “How lawyers allocate their time will shift: the hope and expectation is when we clear their plates, they’ll have the space to think about strategic angles.”��

This brought up how firms’ use of AI is changing talent management. Cohen noted that McCarthy Tétrault revamped its training program to incorporate the integration of AI into its workflows and processes.��

“Having best-in-class prompts that are shared and available to our lawyers is something we certainly weren’t discussing a couple years ago,” Cohen said.  ��

Changing billing practices and elevating services��

Panelists noted that generative AI is changing how lawyers bill their clients. They discussed an example of litigators relying more on flat-fee billing because they know they can handle certain aspects of a matter more quickly.  ��

“Your time in a discovery, trial, or mediation won’t change, but a lot of that time leading up to it will,” Morzaria said. “That allows you to work more efficiently and take on work that may not have been feasible before.”  ��

Panelists also shared how generative AI is helping firms elevate their services. They called out how firms in the litigation space are using it to surface key evidence, while firms on the transactional side are using it for contract review.��

Managing and mitigating risks��

Panelists discussed how firms are addressing concerns around emerging technologies including accuracy and privacy. Cohen noted firms are focusing on “achieving the right balance where we’re generating benefits for our clients but also managing and mitigating the risks.”��

McConnell emphasized that AI is not a replacement for a lawyer’s oversight. She recommended that firms create an AI policy, use a secure software platform that allows lawyers to easily verify output and doesn’t train on firm data, and provide employee training on responsible AI use.  ��

Generative AI is shaping the future of law, and its impact on the legal profession will be even greater in 2025 and beyond. As the market matures, legal professionals will not just desire but require AI capabilities for their workflows. Innovative firms at the forefront, including Kinara Law and McCarthy Tétrault, are best positioned to capitalize on the potential of this transformative technology to better serve their clients.��

Check out highlights of the panelists’ conversation and listen to their full discussion .��

This is a guest post from Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ.��

Raghu Ramanathan: Reflections on Legal Generative AI One Year In

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 09:02:06 +0000

I recently talked with ’ 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 ��VR��Ƶ.��

Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ.

Continued climb in law firm productivity��

I joined ��VR��Ƶ 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 ��VR��Ƶ 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 ; 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 interview.��

This is a guest post from Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ.��

Law Firm Profitability Up: Top Takeaways from the Q3 2024 ��VR��Ƶ Law Firm Financial Index

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:30:55 +0000

Law firms are on an impressive streak, notching their seventh consecutive quarter of profit improvement amid an acceleration of demand and continued gains in productivity. That’s one of the key findings of the Q3 2024 ��VR��Ƶ Law Firm Financial Index (LFFI), powered by . Below is a look at standouts from the report.

Lawyer productivity gains are boosted by technology

In Q2 2024, for the first time in years, a majority of law firms experienced productivity growth. In Q3, a whopping 64% of law firms reported productivity growth, building on the gains seen in Q2.

“The continued climb in law firm average productivity – in stark contrast to previous years – is a key factor boosting law firm profitability,” said Raghu Ramanathan, president of Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ. “Law firms that not only invest in new technology but also adopt AI and generative AI solutions to streamline workflows and improve the efficiency and quality of their work will be best positioned to improve client satisfaction and experience sustained productivity growth.”

2. Demand continues to rise

Overall demand for legal services is up by a solid 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Leading the charge are counter-cyclical practices, with litigation demand up by 4.0% and labor & employment not far behind at 2.9%. Real estate led the growth in transactional practices, up 3.7%. The balanced growth across practice areas indicates a more sustainable expansion than what law firms experienced during the post-pandemic boom.

3. Both full-time equivalent headcount and productivity are up

Q3 2024 was the first time in three years that law firms increased both their full-time equivalent headcount and productivity. While there’s been a slight uptick in expenses – 5.7% for direct and 5.3% for overhead – the modest hiring rate compared to the boom years of 2021 and 2022 is helping firms keep these costs in check.

4. Stable economy provides ideal growth environment

The strong performance for law firms was supported by a stable and healthier-than-expected U.S. economy. Despite earlier concerns about sustained inflation and slow economic growth, the economic environment has provided a foundation for law firms to thrive. Law firms are positioned for a strong close to 2024.

Download the full report for additional insights on the factors shaping the future of law firm profitability and productivity.

Top Takeaways From the Q2 2024 ��VR��Ƶ Law Firm Financial Index

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 11:01:25 +0000

��VR��Ƶ released a new report today – the Q2 2024 ��VR��Ƶ Law Firm Financial Index (LFFI), powered by – showing continued strong growth for law firms amid a resurgence in transactional practices and solid fundamentals in the second quarter of 2024. Below are key figures from the report, which showed a healthy outlook for law firms with overall demand up 2.4% compared to Q2 2023.

From an innovation perspective, the growth in lawyer productivity is a top takeaway.

“Law firms’ recovering productivity rates may be an early indicator of the impact AI and generative AI tools are having on their ability to streamline workflows and free up lawyers for more strategic activities,” said Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ.

Lawyer productivity growth turned positive – coming in at 0.4% – for the first time since the transactional boom of Q4 2021, when pandemic lockdowns were ending and the U.S. economy was strong. In Q2 2024, 54% of firms had lawyers billing more hours compared to Q2 2023.

Other notable figures from the report

Growth in overall demand was led by the counter-cyclical practices of litigation – which grew at 3.4% – followed by bankruptcy, up 2.4%, and labor & employment, up 2.2%.
Demand for transactional practices, which includes general corporate, M&A, real estate and tax practices, returned to growth mode for law firms after almost three years of subpar performance. Transactional fees worked – a proxy for revenue – saw the greatest Q2 resurgence of any cyclical practice group, driven by increased billing rates.
Worked rate growth was at 6.6%, up from 6.4% in Q1, which saw the fastest Q1 pace of growth since the Great Financial Crisis.

For more insights, read the press release or download a copy of the Q2 2024 LFFI report.

Two years of unprecedented progress – Law firms deriving tangible value from ��VR��Ƶ AI

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 16:32:06 +0000

As we approach the two-year mark since we launched��Westlaw Precision, the industry has seen unprecedented development – in many ways instigated by the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022, customers and software developers alike never experienced such exponential opportunity (and some would argue risk).

And here at ��VR��Ƶ – we haven’t stood still; in fact, we have never moved faster!

Within this 24-month period Professionals no longer need to speculate how AI��could��affect their work because they now have a better sense of how it��will —��and in some cases already��is.

And for our customers in November 2023, we launched��AI-Assisted Research��– which allows customers to ask complex legal research questions in natural language and quickly receive synthesized answers, with links to supporting authority from Westlaw content and links to further examine that authority. AI-Assisted Research streamlines the initial phase of legal research with sophisticated answers to questions and the authority those answers are based on, saving hours of work. In fact, this is how one of our valued customers describes the solution:

“Because ��VR��Ƶ has the best case law database, lawyers can feel confident that the answer AI-Assisted Research is generating in response to our questions is well supported.�� The fact that the AI-Assisted Research delivers all the resources it relied upon in coming up the answer, right beneath the answer, amplifies the confidence we all can have in using the program to help with our research needs.”��Andrew Bedigian, Larson LLP

And since launch 6k customers have run more than 1.5M searches through AI-Assisted Research. ��VR��Ƶ closed loop LLM is trained on millions of terabytes of our trusted and verified content – rather than publicly available information – and this generates the most trusted and reliable answer on the market today.

“I did go through and compare the ChatGPT paid version as compared to this AI-Assisted Research. What I can tell you is there is a major difference in the libraries that Westlaw has versus any other program. There is no other program that has the secondary sources, the court orders, the appellate documents, the primary sources – every single thing that Westlaw offers, which is not only on point and published, you have the citations, there’s a source of truth from where the information comes from and it’s only as good as the prompts you give it and the parameters you put.”��Jesse Guth, owner, Guth Law Office

Our customers tell us each day what a critical tool AI assisted Research is for their legal research both to those new to the profession and those that are experienced in the field. By design our intuitive user experience guides customers to run follow-up research – AI Assisted Research provides customers with a comprehensive answer which can be easily interrogated, linking to more sources for validation.

“At Blank Rome, we are committed to providing the highest levels of innovative client service. As part of this effort, last year we were excited to implement Westlaw Precision and Practical Law Dynamic AI capabilities for our attorneys, which has resulted in increased efficiencies and enhanced results.”�� Frank Spadafino, chief information officer, Blank Rome

Over the years ��VR��Ƶ has always been at the forefront of legal research innovation, helping customers to reduce research times and ensure nothing important is missed. AI-Assisted Research is among the very best of these tools, and when it’s used as intended, it offers enormous benefits with very little risk of harm. I strongly encourage you to try it yourself – you will find it’s a powerful research tool you’ll want to employ regularly in your research processes.

Industry Insights: Raghu Ramanathan and David Wong on Evaluating AI Vendors

carrie.brooker@thomsonreuters.com — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:16:27 +0000

Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, ��VR��Ƶ, and David Wong, chief product officer, ��VR��Ƶ, shared their insights on evaluating AI vendors during a with Morgan Lewis partner Rahul Kapoor and associate Shokoh Yaghoubi.

They offered advice on evaluating a vendor’s technology expertise, support services, and transparency. Also, they shared how firms and organizations can mitigate the risks posed by acquiring a vendor’s AI services while maximizing their investment in AI. Below are highlights from their conversation.

Keys to choosing AI vendors

To start the process of assessing potential AI vendors, Yaghoubi emphasized the importance of reviewing their experience and expertise “to allow your business to make informed decisions about whether to engage the vendor.”

Wong said that in addition to performance and cost, firms should consider safety and trust factors.

Ramanathan noted it’s important to consider whether you want a consumer- grade model – that’s cheaper – or a more reliable professional-grade model. He emphasized three criteria to focus on when choosing an AI vendor:

“What’s your philosophy and principles around how AI should be used?” He said asking a vendor this question allows you to see if your firm’s vision and long-term strategy and roadmap are aligned with the vendor’s approach.
Request a vendor’s references and testimonials. Ramanathan explained that firms and organizations should ask vendors how many customers are already using their solutions. “AI is still a game of scale,” he said. “You don’t want to be the first customer training a model.”
Clarify the level of support and training a vendor provides. Ramanathan said this is key to ensuring that all levels of staff are trained and can use the AI solutions constructively.

Wong added that the questions he receives from potential clients focus on data, technology, and talent. He warned that some companies simply repackaged existing large language models (LLMs) for legal use cases without adding much.

“Clients that are working with companies that are building AI have a say,” Wong said. “They can contribute, iterate, and build the products.”

Also, he stressed the importance of working with a vendor that knows how to customize solutions and integrate customer feedback into product development.

How vendors use data

Kapoor asked what customers should consider regarding how vendors use their data. Wong said that understanding the data flow and how the data is processed are key, as well as understanding licensing and data rights, including intellectual property usage rights, cyber risk, and data leakage.

Ramanathan noted encryption standards as well as access control are critical as is demanding transparency from vendors: “You have the right to ask how the data your inputting is used.”

Ramanathan added, “Good vendors should have governance systems that answer” details such as where data is stored and who has access to it.

“Look for transparency” on data output

Wong advised firms to “look for transparency” from vendors, making sure they provide qualitative and quantitative information about the quality of their outputs. He said vendors should be guided by a set of AI principles and should follow a data governance and AI model governance process to mitigate hallucinations and potential risks.

Ramanathan noted that good vendors conduct regular model validation on a periodic basis. He also flagged that professional-grade AI solutions – unlike consumer-grade AI solutions – give a sense for the reliability of the answer.

Data output considerations also include encryption standards as well as vendors’ privacy and security policies. Ramanathan said a baseline is compliance with standards such as GDPR and CCPA.

“The privacy and security measures a vendor takes are a result of their philosophy about AI and how to use AI,” Ramanathan said. “It gives you a clue as to what you can expect downstream in terms of execution.”

Ramanathan added that vendors should share their risk management framework and enterprise risk framework as well as disclose how frequently they conduct audits and what mitigating actions they put in place.

Wong added that most firms and organizations have “tried and tested approaches for technology procurement” that they should apply to assessing AI vendors too.

Lack of AI-Specific SLAs

When exploring initial and ongoing training and documentation, Shokoh asked if AI service-level agreements (SLAs) are similar to those offered for SaaS-type platforms.

Ramanathan said there are elements of SLAs similar to cloud software “that you can and should expect,” such as uptime and maintenance. He noted the hard part is the lack of industry standards for AI-specific SLAs to address issues like response time and accuracy.

In the absence of industry standards, Ramanathan recommended asking questions around issues like product reliability controls and internal testing programs.

Going above the legal requirements

Part of assessing an AI vendor involves anticipating it will adapt to new and changing AI regulations, given the lack of a comprehensive federal law in United States and various states implementing their own guidance.

“There’s wide range and little consistency across the market,” Wong said. “What ��VR��Ƶ has done is look at AI standards in all the markets that we operate in and identify the most restrictive standards. We use a combination of the NIST standards and the EU AI directive as the basis for much of our governance framework.”

Wong added that ��VR��Ƶ applies this viewpoint to its risk management framework and to its data and AI model governance framework.

“We projected what the regulation would be rather than look at where the regulation is today,” Ramanathan explained. “We proactively defined what we call our Data and AI Ethics principles, which are very hard-coded guidelines that go into engineering our products as well.”

To watch a recording of the webinar, .

Raghu Ramanathan Archives - ����VR��Ƶ Institute