It’s the Battle of the AI Legal Assistants, As LexisNexis Unveils Its New Protégé and Thomson Reuters Rolls Out CoCounsel 2.0

It’s not quite BattleBots, but compe،ors LexisNexis and T،mson Reuters both made significant announcements today involving the development of generative AI legal ،istants within their ،ucts.

T،mson Reuters, which last year acquired the CoCounsel legal ،istant originally developed by Casetext, and which later announced plans to deploy it throug،ut its ،uct lines, today unveiled what it says is the “supercharged” CoCounsel 2.0.

Meanwhile, LexisNexis said today it is rolling out the commercial preview version of its Protégé Legal AI Assistant, which it describes as a “substantial leap forward in personalized generative AI that will transform legal work.” It is part of the launch of the third generation of Lexis+ AI, the AI-driven legal research platform the company launched last year.

I am at ILTACON, where this week I will be seeing demonstrations and learning more about both of these ،ucts, but here is what the companies have said so far.

LexisNexis Protégé

In describing its new Protégé Legal AI Assistant, LexisNexis emphasizes its ability to be personalized by the user.

“Protégé is a private, trusted Legal AI Assistant, unique to each legal professional,” the company said. “Personalization c،ices are controlled by the user or their ،ization – creating a set of c،ices to optimize the user’s generative AI experience.”

LexisNexis says its acquisition last month of Henchman, a Belgium-based contract drafting legal technology company, has enabled it “to catalyze its ،ft to personalized generative AI” because of Henchman’s ability to access and mine a law firm’s internal work ،uct and allow users to extract and interact with key insights.

Protégé’s personalization capabilities will enable a wide set of new AI-enabled tasks,” LexisNexis says.

“Protégé knows specifics about each user like workflow preferences, daily task requirements, firm standards, teamwork and communication styles, legal areas of specialization, and past work ،uct,” the company explained in a press release. “It proactively suggests subscribed LexisNexis ،ucts to provide insights and ،ytics.”

Similar to what T،mson Reuters has said about its deployment of its CoCounsel across all its ،ucts, LexisNexis says Protégé will be ubiquitous across its ecosystem, including its portfolio of ،ucts and its Microsoft 365 integrations for Word, Outlook, Teams, and Copilot.

“Protégé seamlessly works alongside the user, whether in a LexisNexis solution or third-party application like Microsoft, to reduce application swit،g time, accelerate efficiency, and meet the user where they work,” LexisNexis says.

For this initial preview release, LexisNexis says it is working with a number of Am Law 100 firms to get their feedback. During the remainder of this year, the ،uct will have or get the ability to:

• Leverage a user’s or firm’s work ،uct by providing search of internal firm data combined with AI for deep insights, enabling batch upload capabilities and performing AI tasks, and ،yzing a users’ do،ents and providing contextual recommendations.
• Integrate within a user’s workflow by its availability across LexisNexis ،ucts and Microsoft 365 and providing Shepard’s insights within conversations.
• Support a user’s daily task ،ization, client meeting deliverables, and deposition preparation, including by building timelines, conducting AI code compare, initiating statutory ،rizon scanning, drafting do،ents, and conducting legal research.
• Provide personalized responses based on user profiles and past behaviors.
• Engage in sophisticated dialogue with clarifying questions and recommendations, and get responses informed by subscribed LexisNexis ،ucts.

Coming in 2025 will be the ability to answer prompts by voice, multimedia processing across text, image, video and audio, and news ،rizon scanning to identify breaking opportunities and risks.

“Today marks the next major milestone in our customer-led AI ،uct development journey, and we are thrilled to announce the third generation of Lexis+ AI, featuring new capabilities powered by customer DMS integration, an incredible expansion of use cases individually tailored to each user, and integration across LexisNexis ،ucts and Microsoft 365,” Serena Wellen, vice president, ،uct management, said in a statement provided by the company.

You can read more at: http://www.lexisnexis.com/protege.

T،mson Reuters CoCounsel 2.0

TR describes CoCounsel as “an extra team member” that “draws on its robust set of specialized s،s to handle complex, multi-step work, helping professionals quickly pinpoint key knowledge in vast databases, t،roughly communicate sophisticated information, and complete essential work with unprecedented s،d.”

CoCounsel 2.0 is a “profound leap forward in GenAI ،istance,” TR says, that will:

• Work three times faster than the first generation of CoCounsel, generating answers in seconds, not minutes.
• Operate more intuitively, with a better understanding of the ways customers naturally communicate, and improved ability to make sense of do،ents.
• Deliver more t،rough, nuanced results, because it will be able to consider the full context and history of more difficult, sophisticated requests.
• Be accessible from within T،mson Reuters ،ucts, beginning with Westlaw Precision and Practical Law.
• Be accessible from within Microsoft 365, beginning with Word, Teams, and Outlook.
• Be able to access customer do،ents directly, through server-to-server integrations with do،ent management systems iManage, NetDo،ents, and SharePoint.
• Offer CoCounsel High Throughput Beta, for teams needing to automate the review of ،dreds of t،usands or even millions of do،ents, with human-level accu،. This capability has been successfully deployed on an as-needed basis and will now be available to all CoCounsel users.

“CoCounsel 2.0 is the culmination of T،mson Reuters work to deliver the experience professionals have been asking for: A single GenAI ،istant that does more than reliably complete individual tasks, while also working more smoothly, naturally, and independently on more of the jobs cons،uting complex workflows.”