No one doubts that these are times of change for the legal sector. AI is gradually finding its way into the legal departments of large companies, law firms and consulting services. It’s no longer just about exploring ChatGPT with a few quick questions. Industry players have launched initiatives to equip themselves with specialized tools and formalize the use of artificial intelligence. This is the case with PwC.
During the EMEA NewLaw Summit organized by PwC, discussions revolved around how lawyers can use the new generative AI technologies and what challenges they pose for the practice of law. We at Neosmart wanted to take a closer look at the position of the consulting firm that organized the event. To this end, we spoke to Patricia Manca, Partner at PwC Tax & Legal and Head of the NewLaw department.
Part of Manca’s job is to stay ahead of the new technological trends that are shaping legal practice. Her department monitors, researches and applies new developments, the most dazzling of which is currently generative AI. In 2023, PwC signed a contract with Harvey to incorporate the tool into their operations. They use various generative AI tools and have been using analytical or traditional AI for some time. Manca gives us an impression of how her company works with the technology.
They have integrated Harvey’s services into the tax and legal department’s processes. What do you use this tool for?
For many use cases. Common use cases include summaries, document searches for analytical information, translation, document comparison, information retrieval, scripting and report structuring. Or if you need to create a presentation, it guides you through the presentation, enhances your emails and improves your correspondence.
Does PwC Tax & Legal also use Copilot for these productivity tasks, emails and Word documents?
Yes, we use different tools. We have Harvey, but we also use Copilot and have other AI solutions. Harvey is very focused on the legal world. For tasks that require more legal language, Harvey is the right tool. But Copilot is very powerful for other things.
You also use Luminance...
Yes, we have been working with Luminance for many years on all due diligence matters. It’s a tool that we use a lot when we want to extract a lot of information and analyze a lot of data. It's a very powerful tool when you need to analyze a lot of documents and contracts and extract specific information.
How are all these tools integrated for lawyers?
These tools are like a part of your "office" or desktop. Lawyers use them every day. But we also try to use them in special projects, not just for everyday tasks that you as a user can do, but when we want to transform the service and use intelligence to create new solutions.
How does all this AI benefit the day-to-day work of a lawyer?
We use it at an individual work level to be more efficient on a daily basis. However, the idea is also to use these tools with and for the client. Ultimately, our business is about solving problems. So it’s a working tool that we use to try to be more efficient, but not just efficient, but also to provide added value.
With the advent of generative AI, it seems that other analytical or traditional AI tools have been neglected. Is that the case?
Non-generative AI is still very useful for certain things. When you need to analyze a large amount of information, for example in due diligence. You need to analyze a large amount of information where concepts are important and structuring information is important. Here, non-generative AI is still more useful than generative AI. Depending on the type of project, you use one or the other.
Harvey was integrated to streamline the work of the firm’s lawyers. But what does the local team in Spain need to do to adapt this tool to the legal specifics of Spain?
The technical tests are starting now. We will work on everything related to the integration, on the integration API between Lefebvre and Harvey [PwC Tax & Legal Spain and Lefebvre have announced an agreement to feed the consultancy’s Harvey version with the firm's legal information management database], to start with use cases, find out how it works and test it. Now the technical work begins.
And how long will it take to complete?
A few months, it shouldn’t take long.
How is the confidentiality of the information entered into Harvey guaranteed?
Everything is protected. Our environment with Harvey is a protected, firm-specific environment, not public. It is a platform created exclusively for PwC, so the information does not leave this space.
Another important business area of PwC Tax & Legal is tax consulting. How useful is AI here?
The potential applications in the tax area are the same as in the legal area. It is well known that generative AI is not as powerful for mathematical questions as it is for language. But tax professionals don’t just analyze numbers, they also use language, write reports and analyze laws. AI is just as useful for this as it is for any lawyer, whether in criminal or civil law.
How will AI change the legal profession?
It is not known to what extent, but a lot will change in terms of learning, working and the skills required.
It will still be necessary to know the intricacies of the rules...
Not only do you need to be technically good in legal terms; I think you need to be even better at questioning what the machine is delivering. But I also think it’s a great opportunity to learn other skills.
And in a few years' time, when AI has been used on a daily basis for a while, how will juniors transition to seniors in law firms?
That's the big question: what will the learning model look like? We are still evaluating it at the moment. I can’t answer that because we’re still thinking about how we are going to do it.
