Please utilize the sharing options accessible via the share button located at the top or side of each story. Copying articles for distribution is a violation of the FT.com Terms and Conditions and Copyright Policy. Send an email to [email protected] to purchase additional rights. With the gift article service, subscribers may send up to 10 or 20 articles each month to friends and family. As the latest hint that professional services organizations are hurrying to use artificial intelligence, PwC has revealed a chatbot trial intended to speed up the work of its 4,000 attorneys.
A 12-month deal with the startup Harvey will provide attorneys access to legal AI, which according to PwC will help them do activities such as contract analysis and due diligence more swiftly.
The Big Four company stated that it intended to discover methods to include the service in its tax practice.
Since the introduction of ChatGPT, the partnership is the most recent instance of a professional services organization working with “generative” AI. OpenAI, a company sponsored by Microsoft, has built an AI chatbot that has sparked interest in the potential of the technology to boost corporate productivity.
Harvey’s program was developed utilizing the most recent technology from OpenAI, GPT-4, which, according to the firm, looks to have far superior legal reasoning capabilities than its predecessor.
Carol Stubbings, PwC’s global tax and legal services head, said the technology “marks a fundamental transformation in the way that tax and legal services will be offered and consumed throughout the industry”.
The company stated that the technology would expedite the decision-making process by generating responses to queries, which would then be examined and modified by personnel.
Because it was capable of analyzing enormous volumes of material and providing convincing responses to queries, it could also be used to summarise essential provisions from batches of contracts, PwC claimed, and eventually to prepare first due diligence reports based on instructions from attorneys.
Using Harvey’s platform, the Big Four company intends to offer customized solutions for tax and legal customers.
AI would not be utilized to offer legal counsel and would not replace attorneys, according to PwC.
AI research in the professional services sector is the most recent example of the ongoing trend toward the automation of regular work.
Moreover, Bain & Co. and Boston Consulting Group are experimenting with OpenAI.
Harvey is already utilized by the law firm Allen & Overy, which maintains that the technology will not replace any people, cut billable hours, or save the business or its client’s money. It was stated that the technique might lower expenses in the future.
Harvey’s competitor, Robin AI, stated that it has offered services to two of the Big Four consultancies and the legal firm Clifford Chance, who use the program to analyze and revise contracts. Its services are founded on technology created by the US startup Anthropic.
“The objective is to automate the high-volume tasks that nobody should be performing,” said Robin’s chief executive, Richard Robinson.
Several advisors are concerned about the consequences for data security and confidentiality, despite the overwhelming enthusiasm.
Accenture has forbidden employees from using ChatGPT and similar technologies “without authorization.” The corporation, which employs more than 700,000 people, informed its employees in an email obtained by the Financial Times that it has modified its policy on confidentiality and the use of technology to avoid the disclosure of sensitive data.
It also stated that it will establish a “center of excellence” for generative AI to advise on “responsible usage.” It failed to reply promptly to a request for comment.
The city legal firm Mishcon de Reya has likewise instructed its employees not to upload client data to chatbots. The company stated that its data science team and several of its lawyers were exploring how the firm could utilize the technology.