Thomson Reuters Integrates Generative AI: Reactions from the Legal Industry
Legal industry journalists, bloggers and influencers shared their perspectives on Thomson Reuters incorporating generative AI capabilities across its legal solutions and developing a contract drafting solution with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Legal Current is sharing their reactions to the announcement and this week’s media briefing, where Thomson Reuters Chief Product Officer David Wong highlighted the efforts.
Some noted Thomson Reuters is well positioned to harness the potential of generative AI given the company’s history as a leader in leveraging AI and machine learning to improve search and expand analytics capabilities. Bob Ambrogi noted in LawSites coverage of the media briefing: “Wong said that TR is committed to leading the development of generative AI for the legal market, and is well positioned to do so given its history of developing AI in legal products.”
Steve Embry stressed the integration aspect in TechLaw Crossroads: “In response to a question at the tail end of the Thomson Reuters briefing, David Wong, Thomson Reuters Chief Product Officer, emphasized that the goal for Thomson Reuters LLM is to bring together the knowledge and capability of the various Thomson Reuters products to answer inquiries. And the lines between the different Thomson Reuters products—Westlaw Edge, Precision, Practical Law Dynamic, Legal Doc Review, Legal Drafting, etc.—will eventually need to be blurred to maximize the abilities of generative AI. The goal, said Wong, is to create a consistent experience.”
Thomson Reuters has a history of customer-driven innovation and its approach with generative AI continues the tradition of customer collaboration.
As ABA Journal reporter Matt Reynolds explained: “Noting that Thomson Reuters has 125 AI engineers and 1,500 trained lawyers working on its products, Wong said the company will beta test its generative AI products with a select group of customers.”
While the AI technology is new, the Thomson Reuters approach to product development is familiar.
In Law.com, reporter Rhys Dipshan noted: “For Thomson Reuters, the value proposition of leveraging generative AI is similar to what the company looks to achieve with its relatively new Westlaw Precision product. ‘The value position for Precision is ‘better results faster.’ I believe with the effective application of generative AI, the same story will ring true,’ Wong said.”
Several writers highlighted a legal-industry first: the Thomson Reuters contract drafting plugin with Microsoft 365 Copilot. The integration in Word will bolster efforts across legal research, drafting, and client collaboration.
“Microsoft and Thomson Reuters are meeting lawyers where they are to enhance their work,” said Josh Kubicki, director and professor of Legal Business Design Hub and Entrepreneurship Program at Richmond Law School, and creator of the Brainyacts newsletter, on social media. “It’s a qualitative play; it’s a productivity play. It’s a really solid way of working and helping lawyers stay in the zone and stay in the flow of providing high-quality communications and analysis.”
In Dewey B. Strategic, Jean O’Grady emphasized the value of the Copilot plugin: “Clearly being integrated into the platform where lawyers draft documents will provide huge opportunities for long term integration and control of legal spending on content.”
Reporter Mary Or echoed the enthusiasm in Canadian Lawyer: “Thomson Reuters and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver legal professionals a game-changing, contract-drafting solution using Microsoft’s advanced AI for Word, Copilot, to instantly tap into Thomson Reuters’ wealth of legal tools and content.”
Finally, several writers addressed privacy and client confidentiality concerns.
As Reynolds noted in ABA Journal: “Data, security and privacy have been at the forefront of legal professional’s concerns about generative AI. Wong said Thomson Reuters guarantees that it will only work with large language models that are not trained on customers’ prompts and data.”
Visit the AI @ Thomson Reuters page for more on incorporating generative AI in Westlaw Precision, Practical Law, and Drafting tools as well as the Microsoft 365 Copilot integration.
