Thomson Reuters Launches AI-Assisted Research Platform

Thomson Reuters has fulfilled its commitment to integrate generative AI into its primary legal research platform, Westlaw Precision, according to Bob Ambrogi in an article by LawNext. The new feature, called AI-Assisted Research, is now available to all U.S. Precision customers at no additional cost. The company has also offered a preview of its upcoming integration of Casetext CoCounsel, an AI legal assistant, across multiple Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw Precision, Practical Law, Document Intelligence, and HighQ.

Starting in 2024, Thomson Reuters plans to introduce AI-assisted research to Westlaw in international markets, beginning with the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The CoCounsel application will continue to be available for purchase as a standalone product, known as CoCounsel Core. Additionally, the beta version of generative AI integration into Practical Law was announced, with the feature expected to be released in the first quarter of the following year.

The AI Assisted Research in Westlaw Precision is highlighted as a transformative change in legal research, with the key distinction being its ability to provide answers in narrative form, eliminating the need for users to sift through lists of cases and statutes. The AI processes queries and delivers answers with footnotes linking to relevant sources. The tool utilizes retrieval augmented generation (RAG), combining traditional research methods with large language models from Microsoft Azure OpenAI and a commercial API to OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Thomson Reuters aims to differentiate itself from competitors, such as LexisNexis and vLex, by highlighting the quality of its content and discovery process. The AI tool currently draws from primary law materials in Westlaw but will soon include secondary materials like treatises.

The CoCounsel legal assistant, developed in partnership with OpenAI, offers various skills, including document review, summarization, and contract data extraction. Thomson Reuters plans to integrate CoCounsel across its legal product suite.

The company is also introducing generative AI into Practical Law, offering a conversational interface to enhance user access to expertise. Thomson Reuters assures customers of data security, implementing comprehensive information security measures and explicitly prohibiting vendors from using customer data to train generative AI models. The integration of AI tools aims to redefine legal work by providing attorneys with a comprehensive set of generative AI skills for research and workflow improvement.