Time flies

I joined Definely in January and as I write this in May, I can’t believe it’s been almost five months since I started. Time flies when you’re part of something that is constantly evolving. The pace of growth at the company is incredible. Every week, it seems there’s a new face in the office and as we launch Definely Enhance, I’ve seen the product evolve rapidly from week to week.

Over the past few months, I’ve spoken to lawyers working for overstretched in-house teams, associates navigating complex agreements at firms,  as well as IT, Innovation and Knowledge teams passionate about making the lives of their legal teams easier. In a fast-moving world, Enhance allows legal teams to work faster, reduce risk and stay focused on their goals.

Definely Enhance is more than a legal assistant. It’s the AI layer built directly into your existing drafting and contract review workflows - integrated natively in Microsoft Word and fully interoperable with the Definely Suite. As we continue to grow and evolve as a business, one product that embodies this progress is Definely Enhance. Over recent months, I’ve seen it become an invaluable tool for legal professionals looking to improve their workflows.

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Promise can lead to problems

Innovation often carries both promise and challenges, and nowhere is this more evident than in the #LegalTech space.

With new technology comes promise - but also problems. I’ve worked in AI for a while now and have seen grandiose statements fall flat, hype dissipating to be replaced with disappointment and scepticism. I already see the signs within #LegalTech.

Whenever I speak to lawyers, they’re rightly concerned about privacy, about the dilution of skills and craftsmanship within the sector. Lawyers are right to question the potential impact of AI on privacy and the mastery of legal work.

No one wants to see the details delegated to machines, but in a sector known for its focus on details, new products hit the market seemingly every week with vague promises and even more vague LLM outputs! A common example is when a tool generates a summary that lacks nuance or interprets a clause, leading to more manual checks.

Fortunately, our products are built by lawyers for lawyers. Definely was founded in 2017 by two ambitious and successful lawyers, Nnamdi Emelifeonwu and Feargus MacDaeid. Since then, the company has developed a product suite helping thousands of lawyers every day. We’ve built Enhance by combining the recent advances in AI with our own proprietary technology.

Our belief is that the features we launch with Enhance won’t just sit within one virtual assistant - but, in time, will cut across our entire user experience enhancing* lawyers’ workflows*.

Fear and foundations

As excited as I am, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. The world is changing at a rate none of us can truly comprehend. Machines will communicate and collaborate with each other in new ways. Systems will evolve. The nature of work will change - so too will our lives.

But AI has been with us for a long time now - we just haven’t realised it. Whether it’s our Netflix recommendations, our route into work or the translations app we lean on when travelling - it’s been AI. I’ve never been one to use fear as an excuse not to do something - and this attitude is engrained into the culture at Definely. 

Our commitment to overcoming challenges is rooted in the story of Definely’s founding. I think back to the early days of the company when Feargus, a practicing lawyer, lost his sight, and Nnamdi, a successful lawyer in his own right, both gave up their careers to start something new. They didn’t let fear hold them back and, as the world changes, neither will we.

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Enhance is just the start

We’re just getting started. If you’re interested in pushing boundaries and re-defining what’s possible in LegalTech, join us. We’d love to have you on this journey! To see Enhance in action or to learn more about what we’re doing, get in touch.

*Apologies for this pun but the marketing team insisted I include it.