Speaking to Computer Weekly, Freshfields’ global chief innovation officer, Gil Perez, said the company is “laser-focused” on getting every member of staff to “master AI” in support of its push to deliver “client-centric innovation” in a responsible and ethical way.
“We are particularly focused on harnessing AI as a tool to augment and empower our lawyers to produce higher quality work products in an efficient manner,” he said. “Conducting legal research, analysing large datasets and summarising the results [are] prime use cases.”
In support of these efforts, the company has committed to rolling out Google Cloud’s online business productivity suite, Google Workspace, which comes equipped with the tech giant’s GenAI agent, Gemini.
Freshfields said it also has plans to draw on Google’s AI capabilities to create new products that it hopes will transform how the legal industry works.
As an example, the company said it plans to make use of Google’s Vertex AI platform to create bespoke AI agents to tackle specific repetitive and time-consuming internal legal and business processes.
We are particularly focused on harnessing AI as a tool to augment and empower our lawyers to produce higher quality work products in an efficient manner Gil Perez, Freshfields
Furthermore, the company said it also plans to use Google’s NotebookLM technology to create documents and glean new insights from existing materials. It also plans to use Gemini to power Freshfields’ proprietary technology, which it claims will help accelerate the pace of document reviews and due diligence tasks.
Perez said the use of generative AI is becoming increasingly prevalent across the highly regulated legal sector, with the technology being used to accelerate day-to-day productivity tasks, such as drafting emails, translating documents and creating meeting summaries. There is also a role for the technology to assist with legal research, document drafting and regulatory compliance tasks, he added.
“We are [also] witnessing accelerated adoption in streamlining e-discovery document reviews in large-scale disputes, [and] semi-automating due diligence contract review processes in transactional matters, [which is] significantly reducing time spent on routine tasks.”
Even so, he said it is important that “humans remain in the loop” in all of these use cases, and that – given the highly regulated nature of the legal sector – guardrails are put in place to ensure AI is deployed responsibly and ethically.
“Our number one priority is the responsible and ethical deployment of AI to benefit our clients. This necessitates establishing robust guardrails and controls to ensure client data security and maximise the value derived from AI technologies,” said Perez.
“This includes, for example, addressing concerns surrounding data privacy, the need for transparent and explainable AI models, and the need to integrate AI into existing legal workflows.”
To assist with this process, he said there is a cross-functional board in place that is responsible for directing the company’s overall innovation and AI strategy. In addition, Freshfields has created an AI oversight committee to ensure the technology’s compliant development and use.
“We are seeing significant progress on all fronts, especially with the new ‘deep thinking’ and reasoning capabilities Google and others have exposed in their latest models,” said Perez.
“Furthermore, we are collaborating closely with Google Cloud to tailor their tools, including the Google Workspace suite, to meet the specific requirements of a regulated legal sector. Google Cloud has been responsive to our feedback, actively working to ensure their products align with our compliance needs,” he added.
The partnership is one of several Google Cloud customer wins that are expected to be announced over the coming days, to coincide with the onset of the public cloud giant’s annual user conference, Google Cloud Next, in Las Vegas.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said GenAI tools are a good fit for teams navigating complex workflows and problems within highly regulated industries.
“We’ve been a proud partner of Freshfields’ innovation journey for years with Google Workspace,” Kurian added. “We believe that our AI technologies can help Freshfields deliver new innovations for its organisation, clients and the legal industry overall.”
Source is ComputerWeekly.com
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