As the 2024 budget planning season ramps up, we all look to both internal and external intelligence to support renewal, cancellation and acquisition decisions.
In August many of my readers participated in the annual Start/Stop survey which was open during the month of August 2023. I partnered with Harbor to conduct the survey and present the results On Thursday, September 14, 2023, at the third annual Legal Information + Knowledge Services Conference (LINKS)— a full day of virtual thought leadership conference.
As in the past, this survey was intended to gather feedback on both products and projects which readers started or stopped during the past year or plan to start or stop in the near future. For this years survey I added new questions related to the emergence of generative AI. Thirty-tree organizations participated in the survey (93% were law firms)
Some overall trends – Generative AI trending up. Analytics Market Shaking out.
Generative AI although legal publishers have been embedding and utilizing AI in their products for decades, the emergence of large language models (LLMs) has captured the market in a rather feverish way. There are firms out on the bleeding edge, but most are holding back and struggling to create an AI policy and select from the ever expanding galaxy of products. Vendors are plunging ahead with AI offerings.
The most dramatic “shape shifting” market event was Thomson Reuters acquisition of Casetext, less than a year after the launch of WESTLAW Precision. The move was clearly designed to catapult TR over competitors, who are developing muti-modallarge language models based AI products internally.
Analytics Five years ago analytics was the was the darling of legal research innovation, while not gone by any means, he market is settling down. Law firms are beginning to assess which analytics products best meet their needs and which products they can live without. There is a bit of a shake-out in the analytics market in 2023 as you will see from the numbers below.
Best new AI Enabled research/knowledge product
- CoCounsel by wide margin of 63%
- Lexis + AI 13%
- Zero filing compliance 6%
- Copilot Law Droid at 6%
What AI products are you implementing or evaluating?
- Lexis + AI (25%)
- CoCounsel 18%
- WESTLAW 15%
- Harvey 13%
- Other 30%
Editor’s note: Although CoCounsel was an existing fully launched product and was regarded at the best new product by responders to this survey, I have to speculate on how Lexis rose to the top of this question. About what AI products firms were most likely to implement or evaluate. Lexis dominance on this question suggests that their outreach and educational efforts around AI was a highly successful strategy. Back in May Lexis launched the AI Insider and Commercial Preview programs while their product was still in development. Lexis + Ai launched this week.
Best new research/knowledge/workflow features or functions ranked by parent.
- LexisNexis 30%: Lexis+ ( Agreement analysis, fact and issue finder), Lexis + AI, Lex machina (new filters NAIC codes and parties,) Courtlink +, Lexis + UK
- Casetext 25% CoCounsel
- Bloomberg 15% Convergence, BGov graphical state tracking tool, docket search resolution filter
- Trellis 10% daily filings reports plus daily litigation alert
- Law Business Research: 10% Docket Navigator – CFAC Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit analytics
Editors note: The most stunning thing about the list above is the absence of Thomson Reuters in the year when they launched Westlaw Precision (Precision launched in October 2023). This might be the consequence of the high cost of upgrading to Precision which may have prevented firms from taking a serious look at the product. I have to assume that with the acquisition of Casetext CoCounsel – TR is very likely to dominate this list in 2024.
Which products does your firm plan to rollout by parent?
- Casetext Co Counsel
- Lexis ` (Lexis Smartlinx, Lex Machina, Lexis +)
- ALM (Radar, Compass)
- Thomson Reuters (Westlaw Precision, Westlaw Edge)
Which Vendors have products which your firm plans to expand access to?
- Bloomberg 33% ( Bloomberg Law)
- Lexis 27% (Lexis +, Practical Guidance, Law 360, Lex Machina
- Thomson Reuters (High Q)
Product Licenses Reduced by Parent
- Bloomberg 15% (Bloomberg Law)
- Thomson Reuters 11% (Monitor Suite, Practical Law, CLEAR)
- Rlex 11% (InterAction, Lex Machina, Law 360)
- Courthouse News Service 11% (CNS Case Portal)
Are there any analytics products you have cancelled or plan to cancel?
- Monitor Suite 29%
- Lex Machina 24%
- Docket Alarm, Westlaw Edge tied at12%
Part two of this report will explore administrative issues including: AI policies, API use, SALI and workflow initiatives being started or stopped.
