Aiming to transform how legal teams and law firms monitor legislation, the New York-based startup Abstract is leveraging artificial intelligence to expand its footprint in the legislative and regulatory monitoring sector. As articulated in a recent LawNext article, Abstract’s approach distinguishes itself by going beyond traditional keyword-driven methods, which often miss subtle but significant legislative developments.
Abstract introduces an “intelligence layer,” crafting client profiles by assimilating both publicly available information and confidential data supplied by clients. This enables the AI to identify relevant legislative or regulatory actions, even when conventional keywords are absent. For example, this approach allows a newspaper publisher to track legislative changes affecting subscription models that might not explicitly mention news organizations.
The company has been building its own data pipelines to pull information from federal, state, and local jurisdictions, employing an agentic approach for municipalities lacking pre-built data channels. This extensive data collection capability supports Abstract’s core functions: Discovery, Impact Reports, and Strategy Workflows.
- Discovery: Delivers timely updates on changes across jurisdictions relevant to the client, using the intelligence layer to filter pertinent information.
- Impact Reports: Offers detailed analysis on how specific bills might affect clients, providing strategic recommendations including stakeholder maps and procedural insights.
- Strategy Workflows: Draws from frameworks used by professional lobbyists to suggest optimal timing and strategies for legislative engagement and influence.
Although the company began as an AI research project aimed at democratizing government transparency, it has since pivoted to cater to the needs of law firms and corporate legal teams, discontinuing its earlier lobbyist-focused product. Pricing is determined by the number of jurisdictions a client needs to monitor, rather than number of users, and Abstract is planning to offer a self-serve version for smaller organizations in the near future.
Primarily targeting large law firms and corporate legal teams, Abstract has been adopted by clients who have substituted older bill-tracking tools like Fiscal Note or Quorum. It appeals particularly to lobbying professionals or in-house teams who handle a wide array of issues across multiple jurisdictions, especially when these span territories with differing legislative contexts.