PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world’s most significant four tax and accounting firms has announced its 4000-strong legal team will officially start using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their legal work.
In a press statement issued on Wednesday, PwC said it has inked a “strategic” deal with law-focused AI maker, Harvey, under which its army of lawyers across its 100-plus offices will receive exclusive access to the “game-changing” Harvey AI tool.
The Harvey AI tool was developed by two roommates, according to TechCrunch, after they observed the now wildly popular ChatGPT tool and figured they could create their own that lawyers could use in their work.
By this move which is part of PwC’s strategy dubbed “The New Equation”, PwC joins a couple of professional services firms such as the Magic Circle Law Firm Allen & Overy, that are starting to experiment with the viability of Artificial Intelligence-backed software tools in bolstering productivity and efficiency at work.
“ With the use of Harvey, our Legal Business Solutions professionals will be at the forefront of industry developments, catalysing their ability to deliver comprehensive, cost-efficient and market-relevant solutions to our clients.”
Said Sandeep Agrawal, PwC UK’s Global Leader for Legal Technology.
“ Integrating Harvey into our day to day activities will free-up much needed time and resources allowing our people to focus more on innovation and value accretive tasks.”
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The Harvey tool which pretty much works like ChatGPT and runs on ChatGPT’s technology reportedly synthesizes large amounts of data and information put in it and quickly churns out summarized, readable and insightful results that are heralded to save lawyers – one of the busiest professions globally, huge amounts of time.
According to PwC, Harvey AI will however not be used in rendering legal advice and should not be deemed to replace lawyers.
Instead, the accounting firm said, Harvey AI will be used to generate insights and recommendations based on large volumes of data in areas that include contract analysis, regulatory compliance, claims management, due diligence, legal advisory, and legal consulting services.
Even then, the AI tool will be used under the close watch of trained lawyers re-echoing concerns about the integrity of AI software as it has come under criticism for making up facts among other imperfections that have the potential of exposing lawyers and other heavily regulated professionals to legal and ethical challenges.
Some professional services firms such as Magic Circle law firm Mischon De Reya have banned the use of AI by their staff for work-related purposes.
But for PwC and Harvey, the deal is not just intended to boost the firm’s productivity and efficiency, it is also meant to help the Start-Up leverage PwC’s network of clients to pilot its technology while enabling PwC to develop and train its own AI properties.
“ Working with PwC provides a unique opportunity to further enhance AI’s potential to solve the most complex legal problems. The scope of PwC’s capabilities enables us to collaborate on AI systems that expand on Harvey’s core legal use cases to provide more comprehensive solutions for PwC and their clients.”
Said Gabriel Pereyra, Co-Founder and CEO of Harvey.
Meanwhile, this week, we reported a class action suit in the United States against another feted AI-powered software that seeks to eliminate lawyers and is being sued for engaging in the practice of law without a license.
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Benjamin Ahikiiriza is a Legal Writer And Digital Communications & Marketing Specialist majoring in Lawyers, Law Firms And the larger Legal Sector.
Benjamin currently Works as the Director of Content and Business Development At LegalReports.