Thomson Reuters revealed today that it will be launching generative AI upgrades to its premier legal research platform, Westlaw Precision, on November 15th. These enhancements are set to build upon its $650 million acquisition of Casetext in June of this year.
Embracing a ‘best of’ approach to product innovation, Thomson Reuters is leveraging Casetext to expedite the timeline for market introduction of its product, while simultaneously integrating content with workflows. This strategy expands their offering beyond legal research, yielding benefits for customers across its various segments.
Speaking specifically about Westlaw Precision, today’s statement from the company reads:
“Enriching its flagship solution, Thomson Reuters is set to incorporate a new generative AI tool into Westlaw Precision within this month. With this new addition, named Westlaw Precision AI-Assisted Research, users will have the capability to pose complex queries in everyday language and receive synthesized responses rapidly. The innovation for this tool, derived from CoCounsel, will utilize trusted content from Thomson Reuters across statutes, cases, and regulations, enabling quick resolution of queries that previously took hours.”
In addition, the company announced the forthcoming introduction of a chat-type interface to its Practical Law product. Available to users from January, this new feature, Practical Law Answers, will allow clients to input questions in conversational language and receive instant answers, validated by the trustworthy content of Practical Law.
This announcement came as rather unexpected to those in legal technology circles, as the company had only last week invited us to a press briefing about the Westlaw updates on November 14, under an embargo until November 15.
In addition to today’s update, Thomson Reuters reiterated its announcement from earlier this year that it is committed to investing over $100 million annually in generative AI. This commitment follows its “build, buy and partnership” strategy, which includes the acquisition of Casetext.