Gong xi fa cai from all of us at ThoughtRiver!
Did you know that ThoughtRiver was founded in Singapore, and that our name was inspired by our founder Tim sitting and looking out over the Singapore River?
From our earliest beginnings, we’ve been a company with deep roots across Asia, with many of our colleagues and customers hailing from the region. The lunar new year holds a special place in many of our hearts, and we can’t wait to see what the brave and bold year of the Tiger holds in store for us!
If 2021’s year of the metal Ox was all about steely resolve and steady progress, 2022’s year of the water tiger looks set to be one of ambitious growth and exploration. While the challenges are far from over, the customers we talk to are positive about the future. As legal technologists we are excited to be witnessing first-hand how the wide-scale adoption of tools like ThoughtRiver are helping shape the legal and commercial landscape.
Transformation of the legal department
We think that 2022 will be the year the legal department receives proper recognition as a core part of the deal-making process. A focus on efficiency, automation, and data-driven decision-making mean legal teams will be able to prove their value more effectively than ever before. By showing a reduction in outside spend, more matters handled per team member, and better deal velocity metrics GCs will finally be able to show what they have long been saying: that the legal team is a core part of commercial deal-making.
Innovation as a key differentiator between legal service providers offerings
We’re seeing more and more legal service providers turn to legal tech solutions in the battle for new business. Utilizing cutting-edge AI technology like ThoughtRiver not only helps firms demonstrate that they embrace innovation, but it also allows them to offer value for money services to clients who need to prove cost-effectiveness for every pound spent. It makes winning new business easier, which leads to more high-value referrals for more complex work. An example of this is ThoughtRiver customers Shoosmiths. Since launching their Powered-by-ThoughtRiver offering Cia Shoosmiths has onboarded several high-value clients including Deliveroo and Next.
Growth in the legal tech market
Legal tech is hot right now, and we see no signs of it stopping. As investment in cutting-edge technology continues at pace there is an escalating war for talent with law firms and multinationals moving into the space. Having reached the seven-year mark we consider ourselves veritable veterans now at ThoughtRiver, with our AI one of the most sophisticated on the market. We see 2022 as a key year for the legal tech industry as more players enter the market and those of us who have been around since the beginning see our offerings expand and mature into essential tools for everyone who works with contracts.
Evolution of the contract
Contracting has come a long way in the past few years. Now more than ever contracts are coming under scrutiny, with a focus on standardization and language at the forefront. No longer content with legalese over clarity individuals and organizations are looking for agreements that are written in plain English – something many of us in the legal community have been promoting for years.
ThoughtRiver’s mission is to make every contract understood by everybody. We flag unfamiliar or unclear wording as part of our risk review, and we write our advice notes and suggested clauses to be read and used by non-legally trained users in sales and procurement departments as well as by lawyers.
Refinement of AI as the market matures
Accuracy is key when it comes to AI. It’s what our customers ask about, and what the market judges software like ThoughtRiver by. Until pretty recently it was almost always the case that an experienced lawyer was more accurate than a machine when it came to reviewing contracts. This no longer holds true.
ThoughtRiver is consistently more accurate than a human. Experienced lawyers average 85% accuracy when reviewing contracts. ThoughtRiver’s accuracy is consistently in the 90s. Additionally, our technology reviews contracts significantly faster than a person ever could – users typically see savings of up to 66% against the time it takes to complete a fully manual review.
