AI or automation?

Dec 20, 2021 | Weekly Automation Corner

AI or automation?

AI or automation?

Artificial intelligence creates more buzz and more speculation than plain old automation. Vendors claim AI bragging rights to feed social media interest, and more organisations feel the need to ask about AI in RFPs (‘requests for proposal’ – tenders).

Where does Legito fit, and does it matter?

Definition matters in this space, so let’s declare our boundary lines. Automation is rules-based. Whether it’s a robot building cars or Legito building documents, the work product is pre-defined. Save for interruptions, the output is assured, predictable and consistent. In manufacturing terminology, automation creates a work product built to required tolerances and meeting a specification.

Using ‘AI’ as an acronym makes it too easy to forget that it’s artificial intelligence. Intelligence intuits a result from a set of data, usually unstructured data – structured data is more apt to be processed by rules. The deductions from intelligence are inherently unpredictable, and the work product’s quality is hard to measure (at least at the point of production). In contrast to rule-based methods, it’s not possible to state clearly the route by which the intelligence led to the output. If a machine manages to pass the Turing Test, it will be due to AI, not automation. Advanced AI is undoubtedly clever stuff, and good applications of AI will benefit humankind.

Legito is not an AI application.

The product has features with elements of AI. Insert a question into a template and then select some text, and you’ll see Legito make intelligent suggestions about using the question to drive conditional text. Using a template, the menu bars configure to offer commands predicted to match your next action. Include a date in a template and see how the document manager extracts the date so you can drive date-driven workflows. Useful, time-saving and nice to use, but the documents are not generated by AI. That’s a good thing. Legito customers want control, compliance, consistency, all the benefits of rules-based automation.

Talking about documents, it’s interesting to see how AI is being used to handle documents. Developers are building AI systems to ‘read’ large volumes of documents that are too tedious and too expensive to trust to human review. Lawyers sift documents for evidence in litigation. HR departments sift resumes from job applicants.

Software companies sift code looking for instances of open source software. Insurance companies sift claims documents for evidence of fraud. They have to use AI because most documents are the epitome of unstructured data and, worse, they are stored in ways that make it hard to retrieve relevant documents (for example, alphabetically or by date). Much of this effort (and the inherent variable quality of the results) could be avoided or reduced if documents were built methodically to retain the data used to create them, and if they were stored in a way that captures that data. That’s what Legito can do.

Artificial intelligence creates more buzz and more speculation than plain old automation. Vendors claim AI bragging rights to feed social media interest, and more organisations feel the need to ask about AI in RFPs (‘requests for proposal’ – tenders).

Where does Legito fit, and does it matter?

Definition matters in this space, so let’s declare our boundary lines. Automation is rules-based. Whether it’s a robot building cars or Legito building documents, the work product is pre-defined. Save for interruptions, the output is assured, predictable and consistent. In manufacturing terminology, automation creates a work product built to required tolerances and meeting a specification.

Using ‘AI’ as an acronym makes it too easy to forget that it’s artificial intelligence. Intelligence intuits a result from a set of data, usually unstructured data – structured data is more apt to be processed by rules. The deductions from intelligence are inherently unpredictable, and the work product’s quality is hard to measure (at least at the point of production). In contrast to rule-based methods, it’s not possible to state clearly the route by which the intelligence led to the output. If a machine manages to pass the Turing Test, it will be due to AI, not automation. Advanced AI is undoubtedly clever stuff, and good applications of AI will benefit humankind.

Legito is not an AI application.

The product has features with elements of AI. Insert a question into a template and then select some text, and you’ll see Legito make intelligent suggestions about using the question to drive conditional text. Using a template, the menu bars configure to offer commands predicted to match your next action. Include a date in a template and see how the document manager extracts the date so you can drive date-driven workflows. Useful, time-saving and nice to use, but the documents are not generated by AI. That’s a good thing. Legito customers want control, compliance, consistency, all the benefits of rules-based automation.

Talking about documents, it’s interesting to see how AI is being used to handle documents. Developers are building AI systems to ‘read’ large volumes of documents that are too tedious and too expensive to trust to human review. Lawyers sift documents for evidence in litigation. HR departments sift resumes from job applicants.

Software companies sift code looking for instances of open source software. Insurance companies sift claims documents for evidence of fraud. They have to use AI because most documents are the epitome of unstructured data and, worse, they are stored in ways that make it hard to retrieve relevant documents (for example, alphabetically or by date). Much of this effort (and the inherent variable quality of the results) could be avoided or reduced if documents were built methodically to retain the data used to create them, and if they were stored in a way that captures that data. That’s what Legito can do.

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Luigi Cominelli: Technology is a Lawyer’s Friend, not Their Enemy

Oct 13, 2020 | Conferences, Industry Insights, LLD2020 News, Success Stories

Luigi Cominelli:

Technology is a Lawyer‘s Friend,
not Their Enemy

About Luigi

After 15 successful years as a Knowledge Manager with NCTM law firm (Milan), now advises UniqLegal S.p.A. in the creation of a combined proprietary internal knowledge management system.

Visit Luigi's LinkedIn

Luigi Cominelli:

Technology is a Lawyer‘s Friend,
not Their Enemy

After 15 successful years as a Knowledge Manager with NCTM law firm (Milan), now advises UniqLegal S.p.A. in the creation of a combined proprietary internal knowledge management system.

Luigi Cominelli is not only an Associate Professor of Sociology and Negotiation at the University of
Milan Law School, but also the Knowledge Manager at UniQLegal. Besides his professional interests,
Luigi has a passion for Negotiation, Dispute Resolution and cognitive science. Whether through
teaching, writing, or working inhouse, Luigi has made a career out of assisting parties across various
industries to reach fair and amical resolutions. His writings have focused on public and corporate
ombudsmen, civil justice, family mediation, criminal mediation, peer mediation, alternative dispute
resolution, online negotiation dispute resolution and public bureaucracies.

“Getting a student interested or eager to defy conventional wisdom is certainly one of the biggest joys I get from teaching.”

Luigi Cominelli

Knowledge Manager

How did you get into teaching? What aspects about teaching do you most enjoy? 

I always had a strong impulse to understand how things work, so I guess in the beginning, I was primarily interested in research. But good research needs to be understandable, and if it cannot be explained, it is useless. Besides, I come from a family of teachers, so the pedagogical aspect of the learning process, and not just the notions themselves, has been a big part of what motivates me. Getting a student interested or eager to defy conventional wisdom is certainly one of the biggest joys I get from teaching.

 

 

What is your approach to teaching negotiation, mediation, and dispute resolution? What are the three most important things you hope your students remember, and practice?

My approach is hands-on, so I hope that when they finish the course, students see the world from another perspective, and learn to do new things. I know that for young lawyers, prevailing and being right is of the utmost importance, but my first objective is teaching them the importance of understanding, cooperating, and being creative in finding solutions.

 

 

What interests you most about LegalTech.

In your life, what features do you look for in a legal technology – which ones are more important to you personally? And to the field of negotiation and dispute resolution?

I’ve always been super-interested in technology. Although I enjoyed my law school years and practice, sometimes I regret not having taken a technological degree. But then I found that a lot of lawyers had the same dream… Technology (and LegalTech is no different) makes things easier, more understandable and enjoyable, and frees your time for real intellectual work (or leisure). In dispute resolution, technology may be employed foremost as a way to reduce distances, and allow for better communication.

 

 

How would you describe your current role at UniQLegal, does your teaching experience ever come in handy at the office, how?

It certainly does. One of the biggest challenges of Legal Tech, paradoxically, is to make lawyers understand that technology is their friend, not their enemy. Lawyers normally have a humanities background, so you have to develop a maieutic attitude and bring out the techie in them.

 

What is UniQLegal? How and why did it come to be?

UniQLegal is a new experience in the Italian market for legal services, bringing together two law firms and a big banking group. It’s a start-up with a solid basis, and it will be centered around smartening the traditional work of lawyers, also through LegalTech. Sophisticated corporate clients nowadays need to see that their counsels understand, and in some ways also share, their focus on productivity and efficiency.

 

In your opinion, due to the worldwide pandemic, what kind of LegalTech features will lead the charge in disrupting the status quo?

We have been seeing a gradual and evolutionary progress of the use of technology in the legal world throughout the last decades. Traumatic and global events such as

Covid-19 will push a lot of professionals out of their comfort zone. LegalTech will have to be ready to provide them the solutions that mimic real life interaction, and make itself “invisible” to be more effective.

How did you get into teaching? What aspects about teaching do you most enjoy? 

I always had a strong impulse to understand how things work, so I guess in the beginning, I was primarily interested in research. But good research needs to be understandable, and if it cannot be explained, it is useless. Besides, I come from a family of teachers, so the pedagogical aspect of the learning process, and not just the notions themselves, has been a big part of what motivates me. Getting a student interested or eager to defy conventional wisdom is certainly one of the biggest joys I get from teaching.

 

What is your approach to teaching negotiation, mediation, and dispute resolution? What are the three most important things you hope your students remember, and practice?

My approach is hands-on, so I hope that when they finish the course, students see the world from another perspective, and learn to do new things. I know that for young lawyers, prevailing and being right is of the utmost importance, but my first objective is teaching them the importance of understanding, cooperating, and being creative in finding solutions.

 

What interests you most about LegalTech.

In your life, what features do you look for in a legal technology – which ones are more important to you personally? And to the field of negotiation and dispute resolution?

I’ve always been super-interested in technology. Although I enjoyed my law school years and practice, sometimes I regret not having taken a technological degree. But then I found that a lot of lawyers had the same dream… Technology (and LegalTech is no different) makes things easier, more understandable and enjoyable, and frees your time for real intellectual work (or leisure). In dispute resolution, technology may be employed foremost as a way to reduce distances, and allow for better communication.

 

 

How would you describe your current role at UniQLegal, does your teaching experience ever come in handy at the office, how?

It certainly does. One of the biggest challenges of Legal Tech, paradoxically, is to make lawyers understand that technology is their friend, not their enemy. Lawyers normally have a humanities background, so you have to develop a maieutic attitude and bring out the techie in them.

 

What is UniQLegal? How and why did it come to be?

UniQLegal is a new experience in the Italian market for legal services, bringing together two law firms and a big banking group. It’s a start-up with a solid basis, and it will be centered around smartening the traditional work of lawyers, also through LegalTech. Sophisticated corporate clients nowadays need to see that their counsels understand, and in some ways also share, their focus on productivity and efficiency.

 

In your opinion, due to the worldwide pandemic, what kind of LegalTech features will lead the charge in disrupting the status quo?

We have been seeing a gradual and evolutionary progress of the use of technology in the legal world throughout the last decades. Traumatic and global events such as

Covid-19 will push a lot of professionals out of their comfort zone. LegalTech will have to be ready to provide them the solutions that mimic real life interaction, and make itself “invisible” to be more effective.

About Luigi Cominelli

After 15 successful years as a Knowledge Manager with NCTM law firm (Milan), now advises UniqLegal S.p.A. in the creation of a combined proprietary internal knowledge management system.

Visit Luigi's LinkedIn

More Industry Insights

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IT/Operations

Jun 15, 2020 | Academy

IT/Operations

Deliver to your internal clients faster with less effort

Drive Success For Yourself And Your Organization

 

We know Technology and Operations departments are constantly challenged and are often only one task away from being overwhelmed. Hard-coded solutions require a lot of time and effort to create and maintain. An easy to maintain automation tool can reduce the normally high probability of (human) error, and make it easier for your internal clients be self sufficient and for you and your internal clients to reach mutual understanding and create sustainable solutions that increase all round efficiency.

Together, Let’s Get A Win Using Our Verified Digital Transformation Playbook

 

We have helped many Technology and Operations teams and we can help you. We share our know-how and tips from automation experts and satisfied clients who have already implemented a document automation solution to help you on your way to do it correctly, starting from determining your use cases, selecting the correct tool, implementation, and building 100% adoption.

Leverage the Experience of Other Digital-forward Companies

Key Improvements Our Customers Achieved With Legito 

%

%

Drafting Time Saved

Higher Document Approval Efficiency

More Revenues

More Accurate Final Documents

Step 1: Identify Your Use Cases

Internal Research

First, identify individuals in departments or teams who will benefit from the change and increased efficiency (typically managers). Assure interviewees that may be resistant to change that there is nothing to fear from automation, and that their input is valued and will help the company by helping them to be even more successful at their jobs.

Determine the key stakeholders. Here is a list of departments which, in our experience, we have found benefit greatly from automation:

 

  • Sourcing/Procurement department
  • Legal department
  • Human Resources department
  • Purchase/Sales department
  • IT department (for integration and security purposes)

After you have determined the correct people to speak to, start your research. Try to avoid questions that elicit feelings or opinions. Here are some standard questions that could prove useful:

 

  • What is our current document drafting process?
  • What is our current document workflow and approval process, and the state of our lifecycle management?
  • What does our current contract signing process look like? Do we use electronic signatures?
  • What are the current challenges we are facing?
  • What contracts or other documents are used most frequently? Is it possible to estimate how much time, on average, it takes to draft each without automation?
  • What metrics are available?
  • What are our software usage and data security policies?

Calculate Your Automation’s Return On Investment (ROI)

Use our Document Automation Matrix to estimate how long it will take you to automate a document, and our ROI Calculator will help you see how well (and how soon!) Legito will work for you.

Investment = Time and Resources spent in the following areas:

 

  • Document Assembly: Time spent defining the Conditions and logical dependencies that power automation. How many different logically dependent / conditioned content and alternative wording options will be automated within the document.

 

  • Document Lifecycle Management: Time spent developing automated Workflows and defining the proper User permissions and User Groups.

 

  • Environment: Time spent preparing the Workspace (i.e., Branding, Footers, Categories, Document Groupings, etc.)

 

  • On-Premise (if applicable, i.e, not using a cloud based solution): Time spent installing the solution and preparing it for use (e.g., servers, integrations, etc.)

Return = Benefits reaped from invested time and resources

 

  • How much faster are documents drafted?

Best way to calculate these results is to research how much time it currently takes to draft different documents from various categories and multiply that number by the number of times it is drafted per year. Next, assume that 90% of that time could be saved through proper automation.

 

  • How much more efficient is your document lifecycle management?

Similar to calculating increased document drafting speed, determine the state of your current document lifecycle management processes, and also how much time is spent. Trial an automated document lifecycle management solution and capture how the time it takes to complete the same processes after automation. The difference is your time saved per process, which can then be expanded to include additional processes by multiplying that time by the frequency these lifecycle processes are activated.

 

  • How much time is saved using eSignature?

Like the above scenarios, it is possible to test the before and after state of your signing processes to determine time saved. Broadly, research has shown that a well deployed eSignature solution can decrease signing times by 95 percent.

 

Averaging these three criteria can help you confidently create an estimate of your automation ROI. Legito’s custom ROI Calculator and Automation Matrix may give you a good starting place to reasonably estimate your expected ROI.

Frequently Automated Documents For Technology and Operations Departments

Technology and Operations teams’ document needs are almost entirely dependent on the nature of the industry or the department. Explore these factors and more in our Industry and Department focused Academy articles.

Step 2: Choose the Right Solution

Important Features

Legito customers similarly placed in your field have found that, in addition to Legito’s core features, the following features cater particularly well to Technology and Operations teams:

 

 

Legito strongly recommends initially testing a complex automation solution (e.g., multiple logical dependencies in an automated template) on a small use case.

 

This may provide an opportunity to investigate many different features. Not only can you determine if the product has everything that you need, but it’s a perfect opportunity to try a pilot project that can serve as a warm-up for an actual implementation. and roll out. Using a complex use case has the advantage of it being more likely that any product limitations will be discovered early. So rather than encountering difficulties later on in the implementation stage and having to start over, these important decisions may be made early.

 

Fortunately, Legito offers a 30-day free trial that gives you the opportunity to do just this.

Useful Resources

Commonly used criteria

  • End-users ease of use
  • Scope of use-cases to be covered by software
  • Fast software development with continual updates
  • Product road map for the upcoming year
  • Out-of-the-box integrations with other applications

 

Additional criteria will depend on the size of your business (Enterprise, Midsize, or Early Stage), and of course, company specific criteria will be determined based on your business’ unique use cases.

Step 3: Implementation

Once you have selected a tool, get to know it and have at least one person learn all the ins and outs. This person may become your first Power User.

Determine which would be more appropriate, an in-house or an outsourced implementation solution.

Have the individual most intimate with the workings of the new solution work with your Knowledge Experts and manage expectations of the solution’s capabilities (probably this initial Power User).

Select a narrow use case that, based on your research, will show users just how much it can help, and will present quick measurable results that can be communicated companywide. Let this first attempt provide tips and guidance on future implementations.

On average, it takes three iterations of reworking a newly implemented solution until it functions properly. Communicate with your implementation team in order to get it right. Once you’ve worked out the kinks, it will be easier to work on the next automation solution.

After you’re satisfied with the initial use case, build upon lessons learned, and select another. Don’t make a half-way effort, make sure you have perfected the automation use case. Then you can move with confidence to a new project with increased scope and complexity.

Timing – select an off-peak period in your business cycle to ensure a smooth roll-out and ensure the least disruption.

In-house Implementation

  • Designate 1-3 individuals to be Power Users. Experience has shown that entry level employees make good choices, as generally they tend to be more inclined to apply technology to increase efficiency, and are eager to get involved in these types of wide-encompassing projects which can help them become more acquainted with their new company. Give these Power Users the time to learn and eventually master the product.

 

  • Many products on the market today can take days or even weeks to learn, and months to master, Power Users can learn Legito’s automation in a day, and master it in a matter of weeks.

 

  • Have a look at Legito’s Power User Educational Training Courses. This should give you an idea of the level of expertise you may want a Power User to have.

 

Outsourced Implementation

  • Your implementation partners should be experts in document automation and, able to execute with precision. To aid them in this, be able to provide precise instructions on how the document automation solution should be realized. Give your implementation partners as much detail about the document’s logic so there are no false assumptions. Ensure that you and your partners have the same understanding.

 

  • It would be great if at least one member of your internal implementation team has completed all of the Educational courses, having time to really know your solution’s automation techniques. This individual should be tapped to liaise with the implementation team (specifically this person who has taken the courses). This will help ensure that you have the transparency you need to make sure your needs are being met to be kept apprised of any necessary deviations from the expected design.

 

Legito has a list of trusted partners.

See Our Implementation Partners

Step 4: Adoption

End-user On-Boarding

Communication! Ensure that your messaging manages End User expectations for the product’s capabilities and the benefits.

 

  • Prepare training materials and use various media (documents, video, animation) to use for personal or online workshops.

 

  • Leverage existing knowledge repositories to store helpful information. Easily accessible resources speed up the onboarding process for new hires.

 

  • Set up training sessions headed up by your Power Users. It can be helpful to offer regular refresher courses long after implementation.

 

  • Accessibility: Consider using your Legito Workspace Footer to link to resources, which may include an internal point of contact who can help end-users.

Learn as You Go training. A product with an intuitive user interface, combined with a well-executed implementation will not require training. Ideally a user will be able to slide smoothly into using your solution with little need for external resources. The best way to do this is for users to learn as they use the product. Some ways to do this are:

 

  • Automated Guided Tours – When a user first opens the automation tool, have them walked through the key features.

 

  • In-app Instructions – Provide detailed instructions to users, either from the outset of a task or later in-process.

 

  • Document Help Text – Whenever possible, use help “balloons” unobtrusively integrated to help users learn more about features.
 

Feedback & Continuous Improvement

Curveballs – You may get lucky, but it’s highly unlikely that everything will go perfectly in the first instance. Usually there will be something that wasn’t anticipated. Some fringe case that wasn’t anticipated but actually may prove worth including. Be patient, listen to your team, and make the changes as you need.


Being 100% programming free, Legito makes it easy to adjust and update its automations. 

Communicate with your early adopters (probably the users from the initial use case) and make sure the solution meets most of their needs. Maintain this constant two-way feedback, and when these users are satisfied, they may very well become product ambassadors and will be less critical of the solution, helping to engage other users to fully adopt the new automation solution.

Measurements

Take the estimations determined from your original ROI calculations and compare inputs and results from your pre-automation state with metrics captured after the implementation of your chosen solution. Use this real data to calculate your real ROI and see how much you’ve saved through automation.

Legito’s Analytics features may be useful for additional quantitative measures to your assessment.

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