Thomson Reuters Unveils CoCounsel 2.0; Supercharged GenAI Assistant Combines the Power of Google Cloud AI, OpenAI, and Thomson Reuters

Rhea-AI Summary

Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI) has unveiled CoCounsel 2.0, a next-generation GenAI assistant for professionals. This upgraded version combines the strengths of leading LLMs, including OpenAI, Google Cloud AI, and Thomson Reuters' own technology. Key improvements include:

- 3x faster answer generation
- More intuitive operation
- More thorough and nuanced results
- Integration with Thomson Reuters products and Microsoft 365
- Direct access to customer documents
- New legal-specific capabilities

CoCounsel 2.0 aims to accelerate and streamline entire workflows, potentially freeing up to 12 hours per week for professionals. The company is testing Google Gemini 1.5 Pro as part of its production models suite to enhance capabilities and processing throughput.

Positive

• CoCounsel 2.0 generates answers three times faster than the previous version
• Integration with Thomson Reuters products and Microsoft 365 enhances accessibility
• New legal-specific capabilities like Claims Explorer and document comparison added
• Potential to free up 12 hours per week for professionals, improving productivity
• Combination of multiple LLMs aims to deliver optimal accuracy and user experience

Negative

• None.

Tech Expert

Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel 2.0 represents a significant leap in AI-assisted legal technology. By combining multiple LLMs, including Google Gemini 1.5 Pro, OpenAI and their proprietary models, they've created a more powerful and versatile tool. The 3x speed increase and improved intuition are noteworthy advancements.

The integration with popular legal platforms like Westlaw Precision and document management systems (iManage, NetDocuments) could streamline workflows substantially. However, the true test will be in real-world applications and how it handles complex legal nuances. The potential for 50% faster drafting is impressive, but accuracy and consistency will be important for adoption in the conservative legal industry.

Legal Expert

CoCounsel 2.0's expanded capabilities, particularly in document comparison and claims exploration, address critical needs in legal practice. The ability to analyze complex patterns across multiple documents could significantly reduce manual review time and potentially improve case strategy development.

However, concerns about data privacy and ethical use of AI in legal practice remain. Thomson Reuters' emphasis on security and accuracy is crucial, but firms will need to carefully consider how to implement this technology while maintaining client confidentiality and adhering to ethical guidelines. The integration with Microsoft 365 tools suggests a push towards making AI assistance a seamless part of daily legal work, which could drive adoption but also raise questions about over-reliance on AI in legal decision-making.

Financial Analyst

This advancement positions Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI) strongly in the rapidly growing legal tech market. The company's strategy of leveraging partnerships with leading AI providers while utilizing its vast legal content database creates a unique value proposition. This could potentially increase market share and drive revenue growth in the legal solutions segment.

Investors should note the potential for increased recurring revenue through subscription-based access to CoCounsel 2.0. The integration with widely-used platforms like Microsoft 365 could accelerate adoption rates. However, the impact on short-term financials may be as the legal industry typically has a slower adoption curve for new technologies. Long-term growth prospects look promising if Thomson Reuters can maintain its technological edge in this competitive space.

Next-gen CoCounsel AI assistant marks significant milestone in company's vision for a single GenAI assistant enabling professionals across industries to accelerate and streamline entire workflows.

• CoCounsel 2.0 generates answers three times faster than the current version, operates more intuitively, and delivers more thorough, nuanced results.
• CoCounsel 2.0 tests combining the unique capabilities and strengths from OpenAI, Google, and Thomson Reuters such as its industry-leading content and legal technology.

TORONTO, Aug. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI), a global content and technology company, today announced CoCounsel 2.0, the professional-grade GenAI assistant. CoCounsel 2.0 optimizes for and combines the strengths of leading LLMs, allowing customers to realize the greatest value from this rapidly evolving, generational technology.  Functioning as an extra team member, it draws on its robust set of specialized skills to handle complex, multi-step work, helping professionals quickly pinpoint key knowledge in vast databases, thoroughly communicate sophisticated information, and complete essential work with unprecedented speed.

A profound leap forward in GenAI assistance  
CoCounsel 2.0 is the culmination of Thomson Reuters work to deliver the experience professionals have been asking for: A single GenAI assistant that does more than reliably complete individual tasks, while also working more smoothly, naturally, and independently on more of the jobs constituting complex workflows. According to Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals report, GenAI is set to free up 12 hours per week for professionals within the next five years. CoCounsel 2.0 will help legal professionals make that transformation, and the resulting competitive advantage, a reality.

"Thomson Reuters is here for one reason: to ensure our customers reliably and safely realize the greatest possible value from this generational technology—as quickly as possible," said David Wong, chief product officer for Thomson Reuters. "CoCounsel 2.0 is founded upon our ability to combine our data, expertise, and trusted content with cutting-edge technology. Partnering with leading LLM providers is a key part of our strategy and will help us deliver even more for our customers, enabling them to accomplish what they need to evolve their businesses more quickly and more effectively than ever."

The next-gen GenAI assistant, CoCounsel 2.0, will:

• Work three times faster than the first generation of CoCounsel, generating answers in seconds, not minutes.
• Operate more intuitively, with a better understanding of the ways customers naturally communicate, and improved ability to make sense of documents.
• Deliver more thorough, nuanced results, because it will be able to consider the full context and history of more difficult, sophisticated requests.
• Be accessible from within Thomson Reuters products, beginning with Westlaw Precision and Practical Law.
• Be accessible from within Microsoft 365, beginning with Word, Teams, and Outlook.
• Be able to access customer documents directly, through server-to-server integrations with data storage solutions iManage, NetDocuments, and SharePoint.
• Offer CoCounsel High Throughput Beta, for teams needing to automate the review of hundreds of thousands or even millions of documents, with human-level accuracy. This capability has been successfully deployed on an as-needed basis and will now be available to all CoCounsel users.

A professional-grade GenAI assistant with expanded legal skills
CoCounsel 2.0 will also bring additional and upgraded capabilities for legal professionals. The just-launched Claims Explorer in Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel simplifies claims research by enabling legal professionals to enter facts and identify applicable claims or counterclaims. CoCounsel Drafting, the new, end-to-end GenAI-enabled solution from Thomson Reuters, accelerates drafting by as much as 50%. 

"As a dynamic and progressive firm, we have always seen GenAI as a key opportunity to improve the quality of service we provide to our clients," said Adam Kerr, managing partner at Primas Law. "After evaluating several technologies, we found that Thomson Reuters CoCounsel offered by far the most comprehensive solution. CoCounsel will allow our lawyers to better deploy their expertise to enhance the client experience. We are particularly excited about CoCounsel Drafting's potential to transform the drafting process. The increased efficiency and productivity we realize from CoCounsel will support Primas Law as we continue to grow our business."

CoCounsel 2.0 will also have the capability to thoroughly compare documents, delivering point-by-point results in an easy-to-navigate table with citation to sources. Customers can choose multiple documents for CoCounsel to examine and the characteristics or types of information to compare. This new capability is only made possible because of the next generation of LLMs that is powering CoCounsel 2.0.

Combining the power of leading LLMs
The company uses multiple LLMs in CoCounsel 2.0, leveraging the strengths of each model to deliver highest accuracy and performance. To ensure the latest GenAI advantages are available to Thomson Reuters customers, the company evaluates every new LLM release and upgrade. In CoCounsel 2.0, Thomson Reuters is testing adding Google Gemini 1.5 Pro to its production models suite. This updated models suite allows CoCounsel to take advantage of a substantially longer "context window," unlocking new capabilities, increasing processing throughput, and improving the ability of CoCounsel to analyze complex patterns in legal documents. Testing shows that a blend of multiple LLMs to power CoCounsel 2.0 delivers optimal accuracy and user experience.

CoCounsel is built on the Thomson Reuters Generative AI Platform, a common development platform to design, build and deploy GenAI skills. Fundamental to Thomson Reuters rapid evolution toward being a content-driven technology company, the platform, combined with workflow automation tools and an industry-leading team of more than 1,000 data scientists and AI and machine learning experts. Most importantly, these foundations mean Thomson Reuters can deliver continual product updates, ensuring customers always have access to the latest technology for accurately and securely solving challenges and delivering value for their organizations and their clients.

Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI) ("TR") informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. The company serves professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Its products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world-leading provider of trusted journalism and news. For more information, visit tr.com.

Contact
Ali Hughes
+1.763.326.4421
ali.hughes@thomsonreuters.com 

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SOURCE Thomson Reuters

FAQ

What is CoCounsel 2.0 and how does it differ from the previous version?

CoCounsel 2.0 is Thomson Reuters' upgraded GenAI assistant that combines technologies from OpenAI, Google Cloud AI, and Thomson Reuters. It generates answers 3x faster, operates more intuitively, and delivers more thorough results compared to its predecessor.

How will CoCounsel 2.0 impact productivity for legal professionals using TRI products?

According to Thomson Reuters, CoCounsel 2.0 has the potential to free up to 12 hours per week for professionals, significantly improving productivity by accelerating and streamlining complex workflows in legal tasks.

What new integrations does CoCounsel 2.0 offer for TRI customers?

CoCounsel 2.0 will be accessible from within Thomson Reuters products like Westlaw Precision and Practical Law, as well as Microsoft 365 applications including Word, Teams, and Outlook. It also offers server-to-server integrations with data storage solutions like iManage, NetDocuments, and SharePoint.

What specific legal capabilities does CoCounsel 2.0 introduce for TRI users?

CoCounsel 2.0 introduces new legal-specific capabilities such as Claims Explorer in Westlaw Precision, which simplifies claims research, and CoCounsel Drafting, which can accelerate drafting by up to 50%. It also offers enhanced document comparison features.