Dealing with contracts without humans is now a possibility with AI innovation

• Luminance’s AI innovation revolutionizes the legal industry with automated contract negotiations.
• AI transforms legal tasks into efficient processes through Luminance’s successful automation of contract negotiations.
• Is AI the future of routine legal work?

We are witnessing a paradigm shift in how AI is being used across various industries.

A recent breakthrough by AI firm Luminance has marked a significant milestone in integrating AI into the legal domain, showcasing AI’s ability to autonomously negotiate contracts, Luminance’s demonstration challenges traditional perceptions and signals the emergence of a new era in legal processes. This pioneering effort illustrates the potential of AI to transform complex, labor-intensive tasks, paving the way for more efficient, automated solutions in the legal field.

This transformative initiative by Luminance involved its large language model (LLM), which has been meticulously trained on a staggering 150 million legal documents. Successfully automating a contract negotiation between two virtual entities, this UK-based company proudly presents this accomplishment as the first fully AI-driven contract negotiation.

This breakthrough event serves as a compelling example of how industry-specific AI models, such as Luminance’s, are increasingly diverging from general-purpose models like ChatGPT to cater to specialized sector needs, and revolutionizing how industries like law use technology for efficiency and precision.

Custom AI in various industries

OpenAI, inching toward its goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), recently introduced a platform that allows users to craft their own custom versions of ChatGPT. This development extends the earlier ChatGPT plugins but now boasts enhanced functionalities. It targets regular ChatGPT users and enterprise customers who utilize a private version of ChatGPT for internal purposes.

The new platform enables users to engage with existing custom GPTs, like those integrated with Canva for design creation or Zapier for task automation. It also offers the opportunity to build personalized chatbots without coding expertise. The intuitive nature of GPTs, that understand natural language, means that anyone with a concept and some guidelines can develop their AI tool.

OpenAI plans to launch a GPT store later this month, functioning similarly to an app store. This marketplace will allow users to explore and create custom GPTs and potentially monetize their creations.

Customized models like Luminance’s offer the dual benefits of data privacy and specialized expertise, particularly valuable for businesses looking to automate specific tasks. Luminance focuses on legal contracts, aiming to reduce the hours lawyers spend on negotiations.

The future of legal work with AI innovation

Legal document review is notoriously labor-intensive, but LLMs like Luminance’s Autopilot can rapidly process and analyze vast amounts of data. Automating routine contract reviews, such as non-disclosure agreements, could save legal professionals time. Jaeger Glucina, Luminance’s chief of staff and managing director, told CNBC that Autopilot manages everyday negotiations, allowing lawyers to focus their creativity on more critical tasks rather than getting mired in routine work.

She explained that the entire process, from opening a contract in Word to negotiating terms and sending it for electronic signature via DocuSign, can now be entirely managed by AI. This AI is not only legally trained but also attuned to the specific needs of the business.

How does Autopilot work?

So, how does Autopilot work? The AI innovation plays a central role in a demonstration involving Luminance’s general counsel and the general counsel of ProSapient, a research firm. The lawyers’ photos are displayed on two monitors, but the AI actively analyzes and makes recommendations on a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

NDAs, known for their strict confidentiality requirements, often require extensive legal scrutiny. According to Glucina, these documents can delay business processes, affecting revenues and partnerships. By streamlining the NDA process, AI can significantly impact various business operations.

Legal teams typically spend about 80% of their time reviewing and negotiating routine documents. Luminance’s software tackles this by initially marking contentious clauses in red. The AI then modifies these clauses to more suitable terms, logging the changes as the negotiation progresses. It also considers the company’s standard contract negotiation preferences.

In one instance during the demonstration, the AI revised the NDA’s initial proposal of a six-year term down to three years. This change was under Luminance’s standard policy preferences. This adjustment demonstrates the AI’s capability to understand and apply specific organizational guidelines, showcasing its adaptability in real-world scenarios.

Glucina highlights the advantage of using a specialized tool like Luminance Autopilot over more general-purpose platforms like OpenAI’s software. Tailored specifically for the legal industry, Luminance offers a more focused approach than general tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Anthropic’s Claude.

Luminance’s Autopilot feature represents a significant advancement over its chatbot, ‘Ask Lumi,’ which launched earlier this year. While ‘Ask Lumi’ is the company’s first chatbot supported by legal-grade AI, allowing users to interact with contracts in Microsoft Word and get immediate AI responses, Autopilot takes this further. Has AI innovation just begun the long march to making lawyers redundant?

Drawing on its experience with over 150 million legal documents, Luminance combines its proprietary AI technology and deep legal expertise. This extensive background positions it as a highly advanced legal Language Model from the company’s perspective.

Luminance’s legal pre-trained transformer (LPT) technology, which stands apart from broader GPT technologies, is specifically trained on legally verified documents. This specialized training enables the LPT to generate content and analyze and comprehend content that third parties have created or edited. By combining generative and analytical capabilities, this AI technology is meticulously designed to maintain the highest standards of legal rigor.

With Luminance’s chatbot technology, users can inquire about specific contract details within Microsoft Word, such as the contracting parties, jurisdiction, or assignability, and get instant responses. Furthermore, ‘Ask Lumi’ enhances efficiency across business departments by enabling non-legal teams to obtain answers to common queries, relieving the legal team of repetitive tasks.

However, the capabilities of ‘Ask Lumi’ are just the beginning. Autopilot can function independently without human intervention, though human oversight is still integral. The software logs all AI-driven changes meticulously, ensuring transparency and accountability.