What to look for in a trusted GenAI assistant

It’s a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. Professionals and organizations in the legal, tax, and risk and fraud fields need to evolve to address numerous new challenges and opportunities.

A large complexity facing professionals today is the rapid rise of generative AI (GenAI) and the many solutions that come with it. Navigating this landscape can be daunting, with many professionals exploring which GenAI tools are most suitable for their specific needs and how to effectively integrate them into their existing workflows. Among the multitude of applications, GenAI assistants stand out as a particularly promising solution, offering many invaluable benefits.

What is a GenAI assistant?

A GenAI assistant is a digital tool that uses generative AI to handle essential but time-consuming tasks, so professionals can focus on more profitable uses of their time.

These assistants are powerful professional tools. They sort through data at high speed, uncovering beneficial information that would take humans hours or even days to find. However, the AI-assistant sector is still new, and choosing the wrong one could work against achieving those objectives. As a professional, how do you choose the right tool for your organization?

What to look for in a GenAI assistant

The following are some key considerations to consider as you examine your options.

Will it access and provide reliable information?

You should feel confident about the accuracy of the information a GenAI assistant provides. For instance, it should access reliable sources like fact-checked libraries or databases, rather than gleaning potentially false — or at least incomplete — answers and insights from unreliable content, like the open internet. 

Does the developer understand your industry?

The company marketing its GenAI assistant technology should be able to prove it has expertise in your field. It should demonstrate a deep knowledge of the challenges, regulations, and ethical concerns your type of organization needs to address. For instance, if you’re an attorney, you should determine whether the developer understands the legal profession’s ongoing issues. Ideally, they should have licensed attorneys on staff.

Can it be integrated into your digital toolbox?

Technology is most effective when it can play well with other tech. Is the GenAI assistant you’re considering able to interconnect with Microsoft 365, database management tools, and other platforms you use in your work? Will it streamline the complicated work you already do, or just become yet another program to run each day?

How experienced is the vendor’s AI talent?

Does the company offering the assistant have an extensive track record with GenAI development? Can it demonstrate an ability to continuously update and innovate as new challenges and needs arise? How well does the company’s technology ensure data privacy? As the Thomson Reuters report notes, many professionals worry that GenAI could open the door to new, sophisticated forms of fraud.

Does it have the capabilities you need?

Sorting through massive datasets for crucial information is an essential capability. That’s just one of the many things a truly useful GenAI assistant can do, like performing trustworthy research and drafting sophisticated documents, to name a couple of others. The broader a GenAI assistant’s set of skills, the greater effect it can have on your organization’s success.

GenAI’s impact on traditional work

Professional industries have always made productive use of new technologies, and artificial intelligence is very much a part of that tradition. That said, the changes GenAI will bring are likely to be profound.

In the latest Future of Professionals report from the Thomson Reuters Institute, researchers gathered insights to examine how AI is and will change how legal, tax and accounting, and risk and fraud professionals work. Two-thirds of the professionals surveyed for the report believe AI will have a transformational or high impact on their field. The report also reveals that AI will likely redefine how professionals provide advice and guidance to their organizations and clients, perhaps even significantly changing their business models.

GenAI assistants certainly won’t do away with human expertise. What they can do is relieve professionals from mundane tasks and allow them to focus on more strategic and creative work that requires their distinctive knowledge and experience.

At a high level, a GenAI assistant is best suited to help with:

• Performing complicated research, such as sorting through enormous case law databases 
• Processing and analyzing large quantities of information, such as data entry, invoice processing, and reviewing financial data
• Drafting specialized content, based on existing examples and templates from your database

Not only do these workflows require tremendous amounts of information, but they’re also tedious and particularly prone to human error. A GenAI assistant can not only automate these processes, but it can also complete them more thoroughly and efficiently. It also provides valuable insights into potential risks and opportunities by analyzing historical data and market trends.

It is basically a software program — one designed to “learn” and become even more effective over time. The most effective GenAI assistant should be at your side, just like a human assistant, but seamless and unobtrusive. It should integrate naturally with your other software, your network, and your team, guiding you through complicated workflows, across applications and documents, and completing much of the most time-consuming and tedious tasks for you along the way — freeing you for strategic work requiring your human expertise.

A trusted GenAI assistant, with you every step of the way

When looking for a trusted GenAI assistant, you’ll need to choose one that understands the work you do as a professional and can help you clarify the complex. Let us show you CoCounsel.

A GenAI assistant, CoCounsel can perform sophisticated research and analyze dense, voluminous information — and then deliver reliable, accurate, and thorough answers quicker than humanly possible.

CoCounsel should stand out for professionals seeking a comprehensive and adaptive solution. Unlike other AI tools that focus on single tasks, CoCounsel is designed to manage entire workflows, providing seamless integration and enhanced productivity. Its advanced learning capabilities ensure that it continues to evolve, understanding the intricacies of work and keeping pace with industry changes. This makes CoCounsel a true assistant that not only streamlines current tasks but also anticipates future needs, making it an invaluable partner in clarifying the complexities of your professional landscape.

With AI rapidly transforming the legal, tax and accounting, and risk and fraud professions, and clients expecting more than ever before, having a trusted AI assistant that you can rely on will be truly invaluable. Thomson Reuters is the industry-leading technology company for decision-makers faced with an increasingly complex world. We are continuously innovating and developing AI technology, so you can know today and navigate tomorrow with unwavering confidence.