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With a growing reputation for its legal chatbots, automated document generation, contract management and e-signature support, Sydney-headquartered tech company Sprintlaw is upping the ante through the release of what it claims to be the world's first voice-enabled AI lawyer.
Sprintlaw's launch of Taylor AI, specifically designed for small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been historically underserved in the legal sector, follows a $2 million seed round in September 2023 aimed at driving investment into software and large language model (LLM) technology.
According to co-founder Alex Solo, the move was "fired up" by a predictions from Goldman Sachs that 44 per cent of legal tasks could be automated within the next decade by LLMs.
The company claims it developed the AI-powered platform to "disrupt itself", pushing the boundaries of traditional legal services to make them faster, more accessible, and more affordable for SMEs.
To develop the product, Sprintlaw was able to draw on its extensive trove of 10,000 small business law resources - all de-identified - from Australia and the UK, creating what it describes as "ChatGPT with a law degree".
"Taylor AI draws a clear boundary between what AI does well and where a human touch is irreplaceable," says Alex Solo, who co-founded Sprintlaw in 2017 with Tomoyuki Hachigo. Both are finalists in the 2024 Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards taking place next week on the Gold Coast.
"Rather than replacing lawyers, it actually enhances their impact by giving clients foundational guidance and encouraging deeper engagements with our team when more complex issues arise."
Taylor AI acts as a virtual advisor, enabling business owners to ask questions and receive instant, voice-guided answers to business law questions. Going beyond basic responses, Taylor AI provides detailed, practical guidance through audio technology and can even review and summarise basic legal contracts.
Solo says the offering is a "means to an end" of making legal services more accessible. Since inception the company has blended technological and legal expertise, with a team of lawyers who utilise its custom-built automation platform to provide a more affordable service.
The business operates completely online and offers fixed-fee packages to clients, covering services like business set-up, business structuring, contract drafting, contract reviews, intellectual property protection, privacy, lease reviews, financing and more. More recently, Sprintlaw launched a subscription-based membership product as well.
Solo and Hachigo were previously lawyers at a traditional corporate firm, where they often witnessed smaller businesses on the other side of the negotiation table losing out because they lacked the right legal knowledge or hadn't received proper legal advice.
"Our research showed a simple explanation - seeing a lawyer is a headache. Traditional lawyers operate under an outdated billable-hour business model that incentivises inefficiency and is resistant to technological change," Solo explains.
"The result is an industry that is not fit for purpose for small business and startups - providing services that are too expensive, too time consuming, and unnecessarily complex for simple legal needs.
"To tackle this problem, we saw a major opportunity emerging through the rise of automation technology."
Solo says Taylor AI is in its fledgling stages but the team is excited about its potential.
"Our roadmap includes more sophisticated doc review and drafting capabilities, and more integrated collaboration with our lawyers' workflows, to bring the speed and quality of legal support available to small businesses to a whole new level," Solo says.
When asked about concerns over artificial intelligence and its tendency to hallucinate or make mistakes, Solo explains the steps taken to overcome these risks.
"By using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), we ensure that when the AI answers questions, it’s drawing exclusively from our vetted sources," he says.
"We’ve also implemented strict parameters for how the AI responds, making sure it remains within the scope of reliable information and applicable laws.
"We’ve also integrated a lawyer verification feature directly into the platform where the AI is housed; the AI is part of a subscription that includes unlimited (human) lawyer calls. This allows the AI to provide initial information on the spot, with the option for clients to easily verify it with our lawyers, often at no additional cost."
He says this blend of technology and human oversight, coupled with our tight workflow, has been highly effective in making the AI both impactful and reliable.
The news comes amidst an eventful time for Australian artificial intelligence-enabled companies, with the recent launch of Booked AI's virtual travel agent and educational AI teacher assistant tool Edexia being accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program in California.
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