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16 www.canadianlawyermag.com AI UPDATE SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE Thomson Reuters focuses on leveraging AI IF EVER a technology could be described as being a game changer, generative AI is that tech. AI has the potential to funda- mentally alter how legal professionals work. Thomson Reuters is ahead of the curve in that regard. Among other steps, the com- pany has announced a $100 million annual investment to integrate responsible AI into its content and offerings. To learn more about what Thomson Reuters is doing in Canada and beyond to get ready for the change in the game, Canadian Lawyer spoke with Steven Assie, head of Canada at Thomson Reuters. Can you provide an update on what Thomson Reuters is doing in Canada? There are many exciting updates happening here in Canada. Recently, we moved into our new cutting-edge innovation hub in downtown Toronto. This space at 19 Duncan Street serves as a major hub for product innovation and collaboration, bringing together members of our news bureau, content and editorial teams, sales teams, and other corporate functions teams all under one roof. In Canada, we're also working with local governments to revolutionize the way legal services are delivered. For instance, Thomson Reuters was recently awarded a contract by the government of Ontario to deliver a new digital justice platform, allowing court users to file documents quickly and easily online, digitally access court case information, pay fees, connect to virtual hearings, manage court appearances, and receive decisions electronically. We're very proud to help Ontario transform its court system into one of the most modern and accessible justice systems in North America and facilitate access to justice for the province's citizens. In terms of our products in Canada, we've been moving more of the trusted content that legal professionals need for legal research to the Westlaw platform. For example, we have moved many of our eLoose Leaf titles to Topical Texts & Annotations collections on Westlaw. The integration with Westlaw's robust user interface and powerful search capabilities not only enhances the research experience but also empowers users to work more efficiently and effectively. This synergy delivers immediate benefits to lawyers while also paving the way for future AI enhancements to leverage this content on Westlaw's platform. We also recently announced our intention to invest more than $100 million USD annually to integrate responsible generative AI into our flagship content and technology solutions across legal, tax and accounting, and compliance. We're committed to providing our customers with the very best and trusted solutions at speed. Let's discuss generative AI. What can lawyers do now to prepare for the generative AI revolution? According to a recent report from the Thomson Reuters Institute, 82 percent of legal professionals believe that generative AI could be applied to legal work. It's safe to assume the most productive and efficient lawyers – and other professionals of the future – will be those who leverage genera- tive AI as a tool to enable them to focus their time on what's most important. There will be new opportunities created by the advanced automation of tasks, and we need to train humans for these prospects. Upskilling is essential for all participants in the legal market – law firms, corporate law departments, government agencies, and courts. While these organizations need to invest in upskilling their workforces, individuals too must invest in themselves and seek out opportunities to advance their careers in the new professional landscape that generative AI will create. Today, lawyers can start experimenting and getting familiar with large-language models like ChatGPT – not with confidential client work but with routine questions as they go about their day. This will help them start to learn the basics of crafting a good prompt. It will also help them under stand the current limitations of these types of tools. It's also important that legal organi- zations think about where their digital content is stored and develop a migration plan. Generative AI can unlock tremendous value if it has good content to work with. Organizations should assess their current third-party subscriptions as well as their internal content repositories and develop a plan to get all these different types of content into the applications that will see the most generative AI investment. Finally, every organization should have a checklist for vetting new generative AI Brought to you by The advanced automation of tasks will create new opportunities, and humans will need to be trained to take advantage of them, says Thomson Reuters head of Canada Steven Assie