Picture an AI avatar — completely disconnected from the Internet — competing against two top-ranked game show participants. In one round, it reveals a human-like ability for complex wordplay, correctly answering the question, “Classic candy bar that’s a female Supreme Court justice” with “What is Baby Ruth Ginsburg?” Even more strikingly, it compares its wrong answers against the correct ones to find out where it erred, exactly, and inform future responses.
Yes, it is hard to believe it has been nearly a decade since IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology triumphed over human players Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy!, garnering worldwide attention. The victory represented a milestone for the multinational technology company. It was the culmination of IBM mining human language for semantic meaning of words and enabling the supercomputer to answer Jeopardy-like questions. In the years leading up to the competition, this was virtually impossible for any one computer system.
Not long after winning millions of dollars on the popular game show, IBM invested heavily in the application of AI, creating a new business division for “cognitive computing.” It also partnered with New York City’s Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and saw its AI perform cost management analysis of lung cancer treatment. The company then deployed its AI, which became known as Watson, in various other industries: geotechnical engineering, veterinary science, food and beverage, education, and government. IBM Watson has even been involved with the application of machine learning, serving as a chef, movie director, and dress designer — and the provision of roadside assistance.
So clearly, IBM Watson has come a long way since appearing on Jeopardy!. No longer just a big, computerized “brain,” it is now the “gold standard for purposeful analytics processing.”
Granted, this and other forms of AI may not join your legal team any time soon. Nevertheless, the advanced technology will have an important role to play in the legal industry moving forward.
Here is more about IBM Watson AI and how it is being applied to legal document management today.
History of IBM Watson AI
Named after IBM’s first CEO, Thomas J. Watson, the AI technology was intended to be a natural language-responsive system, initially. However, it evolved to interpret and answer questions asked in a human language, and analyze vast amounts of data — at a rate of 80 teraflops every second. IBM Watson AI accepts new data in its repository and uses machine learning to expand its knowledge of subjects and deliver unique insights to users.
Due to its business problem-solving and predictive analytics, IBM Watson AI stands in contrast to other AI-based analytics software. What is more, Watson can be run internally or accessed through the IBM cloud. That is why the AI is an incredibly viable option for mid- and large-size companies. The technology is so intuitive and user-friendly, in fact, that it is employed outside of data analytics teams.
IBM Watson AI in the Legal Industry
As companies build relationships with new suppliers and partners, mitigating contract risk while maximizing profitability is vital. Accordingly, they need to stop using antiquated contract repositories and authoring tools, and start deploying advanced software that infuses legal document management with AI.
IBM Watson AI, having limitless functionality, breaks down traditional barriers to legal documents. The application of the technology to legal software enables users to assemble, automate, approve, digitally sign, and manage all of their legal documents. It empowers contract analysts to fulfill their very function: reading, interpreting, analyzing, and reporting key agreement information. In addition, it helps with the management of workflows and approvals, and automatically sets alerts and reminders for pertinent dates.
Nowadays, legal professionals can lose focus or tire easily when authoring custom contracts, searching historical agreements for acceptable terms, or dealing with multiple contact changes. Fortunately, the automation of legal document assembly leads to the quick creation of contracts, ensures agreement terms are properly vetted, and protects the business’ interests altogether.
Benefits of AI-based Legal Document Management Systems
By infusing legal document management with IBM Watson AI, in-house corporate counsel can greatly accelerate the assembly of sell-side contracts and fast-track reviews for buy-side contracts. They can receive deep insights into contract performance across the organization, better compare contract terms against historical agreements, and thoroughly review clauses. More specifically, an AI engine like IBM Watson helps in-house counsel to:
*Prevent contract lifecycle management (CLM) delays, extended negotiations, or impediments to contract managers’ productivity
*Transform contract insights into intelligence, and parse thousands of contracts and their metadata to find out how many contracts are up for renewal; how many contracts were — or were not — renewed for specific services, regions, or deal sizes; how long contracts were negotiated for; and what contracts are being viewed and shared widely
*Manage risks amidst the accelerated pace of business and increased regulatory requirements for business transparency
*Contain costs of agreements that are written in a complex language; include elaborate terms absolving parties of any potential liability; are subject to ongoing review by regulatory auditors; extend through multiple renewal cycles; and serve as the foundation of strategic partnerships or corporate acquisitions
Best of AI Technology
It is true what they say: legal documents not only represent companies’ previous successes, but also have a bearing on their existing obligations and future opportunities. They same can be said about legal document management systems, which allow in-house counsel to truly understand their agreements, in particular.
With such AI-enhanced software, legal teams can see contract performance data and make important, data-driven decisions. In addition to being able to view reliable insights, they can modify product or service offerings. They can make sound plans to expand into new markets or hire new employees. Without it, they just may struggle with the assembly of documents and the review of supplier agreement terms. They may see organizational costs rise steadily or sharply, too.
So, the only question now is, “when are you going to deploy a legal document management system — powered by artificial intelligence — for your own corporate legal division and enterprise?” To answer that question, at least, you really do not need the help of IBM Watson.
Anurag Malik is the Chief Technology Officer at ContractPodAi. Anurag’s focus is building the next generation of an AI-driven dominant technology platform in the contract management space. Read his executive bio here.
