The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1507414
solutions. The Canadian legal market is going to see a flurry of new generative AI technologies emerge, and lawyers should be prepared with evaluation criteria to make sure they fully understand issues like data residency, the depth and breadth of underlying content, model training protocols, the likelihood of hallucinations, and biases in content. Why is Thomson Reuters well positioned to help lawyers navigate the new generative AI landscape? We h a v e s u c c e s s f u l l y i n t e g r a t e d AI-powered technology into our products and solutions for more than 30 years in a transparent and ethical way. For example, in addition to Westlaw Edge Canada's power ful search capabilities, one of Westlaw's greatest strengths and competi- tive differentiators is the decades of under- lying editorial expertise. We use technology to showcase this foundational editorial expertise in Westlaw Edge Canada. We're continuing to develop our own in-house tools, bringing together our trusted content and intelligence from across Westlaw, Practical Law, and Document Intelligence to surface key insights, legal knowledge, and answers to complex questions. We recently demonstrated the potential for a new generative AI-powered research assistant in Westlaw to help make search experiences more interactive and faster for our legal customers. Research that previously took hours will soon be able to be delivered in a fraction of the time, delivering better outcomes with a more robust and easier user experience. Also, working with Microsoft, we are developing an intelligent drafting solution, powered by our legal products and content – and Copilot – for Word. In Microsoft Word, professionals will be able to use their expertise to edit, validate, and build the final document with integrated access to our knowledge, content, and AI technology. We are working on bringing all these new capabilities to the Canadian market. We've got no shortage of interest from customers; I'm talking to them daily right now about how they want these capabilities to be integrated into their workflow and products. It's an exciting opportunity to sit down with legal leaders here in Canada and listen to how they want to reimagine the way that they serve their clients. What are your final thoughts for lawyers on embracing generative AI as an integral component in the future of work? I would say that generative AI is no different than any technology, which at first can be intimidating. Adopting any technology requires changes to routines and workflows. We have great confidence in the potential of this technological era and the capability of professionals to make the very best of the opportunities ahead of us. As we've seen with E-Discovery and other once-new technologies in the legal space, when the tools are adopted and fit for purpose, tasks like legal research and drafting can be made better, more efficient, and more comprehensive. Topical searches will become smarter. Analytics will become more human. Workflows will become more intuitive. The legal industry will become more productive, and that should lead to tremendous gains in access to justice. It's truly a unique and transformative time in the legal space, and I would encourage all lawyers and legal professionals who support the legal industry to lean in and learn as much as they can to elevate the way they work. www.canadianlawyermag.com 17