Thomson Reuters announced several new generative artificial intelligence tools and platforms earlier this week. I had the privilege of attending a press briefing hosted by Thomson Reuters in advance of the announcement. Thomson Reuters personnel discussed the new products and offerings and allowed several of us to try them out. The presentations and products were impressive.
Several articles review these products in detail, and I won’t attempt to duplicate those. Suffice it to say, the main offerings discussed were:
An AI assisted research tool on Westlaw Precision CoCounsel integrations including a GenAi assistant and CoCounsel Core that move from keyword based inquiries to natural language inquiries (to be launched in the future) A quotation analysis (to be launched in the future) A more robust Practical Lawyer tool
That is all well and good, but there were several more general and attitudinal takeaways from my time with Thomson Reuters representatives and the press briefing that may be more important.
First, several of us wondered what might happen to Casetext, the creator of the original GenAI tool for legal, CoCounsel, after its acquisition by Thomson Reuters. Would Casetext’s scrappiness and entrepreneurial sprint get lost in Thomson Reuters’ bureaucracy? Would Thomson Reuters overrun the Casetext culture? Would Casetext’s innovative approach to legal technology wither away?
The Casetext CoCounsel product is playing a central and dynamic role in the Thomson Reuters suite of offerings.
I’m happy to say based on what I heard at the briefing, it looks like the Casetext CoCounsel product is playing a central and dynamic role in the Thomson Reuters suite of offerings. Rather than withering away, there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the companies and their personnel. This relationship can only help both companies and,