Thomson Reuters has introduced an updated version of CoCounsel focused on agentic AI, claiming it surpasses basic respond-only capabilities by providing planning, reasoning, and decision-making. The industry, however, questions the need for such advancements, especially considering the skepticism surrounding AI's role in sensitive legal settings. The announcement also includes enhancements for tax and accounting sectors, suggesting broader applicability. Ultimately, while the potential for AI assistance exists, the legal field appears hesitant to fully embrace an autonomous AI due to trust issues with decision-making, preferring tools that aid rather than replace human oversight.
While today's most advanced AI assistants can generate results when prompted, agentic AI goes beyond simply responding under a pre-defined sequence of actions. It plans, reasons, acts, and even reacts - operating inside real workflows to complete complex, multi-step assignments with the transparency, precision, and accountability professionals require.
In an industry that routinely marks down work conducted by elite law school graduates, it's hard to imagine there's a real hankering for a bot that 'plans, reasons, acts, and even reacts.' If we're not trusting a third-year from Harvard Law to make decisions on their own, it's not clear why we'd want an algorithm.
The product announcement for law dovetails with an announcement aimed at tax, audit, and accounting professionals. The product looks useful for those folks - automating compliance reviews, memo drafting, and regulatory checks. It taps into Checkpoint, IRS code, and internal documents to deliver the right output based on the situation.
The good news for lawyers is that the legal product seemed less an autonomous tool deciding whether or not to open the pod bay doors and more a supportive tool to assist lawyers in their tasks.
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