Thomson Reuters Unveils GenAI Tools for Legal Research

Last Updated on November 16, 2023 by SPN Editor

Thomson Reuters took a significant leap forward in AI innovation by announcing the integration of GenAI Tools for legal research platforms. This move aims to support professionals in navigating complex research tasks. The company’s commitment involves substantial investments in product development, strategic acquisitions, partnerships, and upskilling their global workforce to integrate GenAI Tools for legal research capabilities across various key areas:

1. Westlaw Precision: Thomson Reuters’ AI streamlines access to solutions for intricate legal queries within seconds.
2. Practical Law: Professionals gain swifter and more intelligent access to the expertise of over 650 attorney-editors through Practical Law.
3. Legal Document Review and Summary: Generative AI scans through numerous relevant documents swiftly, enabling the identification of critical risks, resolution of queries, task execution, and generation of concise yet powerful summaries.
4. Thomson Reuters Legal Drafting with Microsoft Copilot: Their generative AI collaborates seamlessly within preferred software, amalgamating insights and intelligence from trusted content with the user’s knowledge.
5. Checkpoint Edge: This platform offers prompt, dependable responses to intricate tax and accounting inquiries.

Thomson Reuters is heavily investing, over $100 million annually, into generative AI technologies such as LLM and chat-based conversational interfaces. With a legacy spanning over 150 years, they’ve been providing professionals with a reliable and precise repository of legal and tax content curated by a team of over 2,000 subject matter experts.

Their extensive experience of over 30 years in deploying AI and language models has led to pioneering innovations like Westlaw Edge, Westlaw Precision, Practical Law Dynamic, and Checkpoint Edge.

The newly introduced feature, AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision, enables users to articulate intricate legal queries in natural language. It then furnishes synthesized responses by referencing Thomson Reuters’ extensive Westlaw database, built upon 150 years of legal analysis. Furthermore, it offers links to other relevant sources, aiding users in accessing the pertinent legal authority in question.

According to David Wong, Chief Product Officer for Thomson Reuters, and Mike Dahn, Head of Westlaw Product Management at Thomson Reuters, GenAI Tools for legal research innovation facilitates swift and efficient discovery of answers to legal queries, ranging from simple to intricate ones.

They highlighted how this technology streamlines what used to be hours of meticulous document scanning, case studies, and statute examinations into a matter of minutes. Leveraging the trusted legal content of Westlaw Precision allows legal professionals to redirect their focus toward higher-value, strategic endeavors.

The GenAI Tools for legal research by Thomson Reuters ensures a secure, privacy-compliant, and dependable environment for the development of generative AI. This platform aims to empower the rapid expansion of AI product offerings while ensuring safety and reliability in its operations.

Thomson Reuters emphasized that the newly launched GenAI Tools for legal research and forthcoming developments rely on their Generative AI platform. David Wong and Mike Dahn highlighted how this platform enables the company to rapidly broaden its AI product range by utilizing reusable components.

To maintain accuracy and reliability, Thomson Reuters employs a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) approach within their AI-assisted research tool. This method ensures that large language models used by the platform focus solely on the language within the Westlaw archive. Wong and Dahn explained that the AI reads through Westlaw content, providing synthesized answers to complex questions while citing materials to reinforce the accuracy and credibility of the data provided.

Thomson Reuters also unveiled its plan to enhance its GenAI assistant, CoCounsel, which has already been launched and is set to receive additional functionalities over the next year. This upgrade involves deeper integration into the company’s content and products.

According to the company’s representatives, CoCounsel operates on a cloud-native technology platform, adopting an API-first development approach. It incorporates Thomson Reuters’ UX and design systems, facilitating the swift launch of new AI skills through reusable components.

These newly unveiled GenAI Tools for legal research, including AI-Assisted Research and CoCounsel, enable legal professionals to not only benefit from AI-driven legal research but also utilize these tools for drafting, reviewing, and summarizing legal documents. Additionally, these tools assist in monitoring contract compliance and extracting relevant data for further analysis from contracts.