Thomson Reuters Teases Generative AI Updates to Westlaw Precision Coming Nov. 15

Thomson Reuters said today that it will unveil generative AI enhancements to its flagship legal research product Westlaw Precision on Nov. 15 that will build on its $650 million acquisition of Casetext last June.

TR said it is taking a “best of” approach to product development, leveraging Casetext to accelerate the time for bringing its product to market, while also blending content with workflows and expanding beyond legal research to provide benefits to customers across its segments.

With regard to Westlaw Precision, today’s statement said:

“Enhancing its flagship product, Thomson Reuters is set to make a new generative AI skill available in Westlaw Precision later this month. Using the new skill named Westlaw Precision AI-Assisted Research, customers will be able to ask complex questions in conversational language and quickly receive synthesized answers. Leveraging innovation from CoCounsel, the new skill will draw from Thomson Reuters industry-leading, trusted content from across statutes, cases, and regulations to quickly resolve queries that used to take hours.”

The company also said that it would be bringing a chat-type interface to its Practical Law product. Available to customers in January, the new Practical Law Answers will allow users to submit queries in conversational language and quickly receive answers validated by the trusted content of Practical Law.

Today’s statement came as somewhat of a surprise to those of us who cover legal technology, as the company had last week invited us to a press briefing about the Westlaw updates on Nov. 14, with the understanding that the news was under embargo until Nov. 15.

In today’s statement, TR also restated its announcement from earlier this year that it is committed to investing more than $100 million a year in generative AI through a strategy of “build, buy and partnership,” including the Casetext acquisition.