It’s under control, everything is under control. 
The edition of this news could even be inspired by the funk of Rio de Janeiro’s Tati Quebra Barraco. After all, our subject is very tech. And wherever we look in this 21st century, there’s a tech on the way. But since we are enthusiasts of the transformations promoted by technology, we’re going to hitch a ride on literature. And with the permission of the author Yuval Noah Harari, in “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow”, let’s think: |
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“Homo sapiens is about to transform into something completely different, whether through biological manipulation, engineering of non-organic organisms or the creation of artificial intelligences. We are becoming gods, ready to create and destroy in our image and likeness.” |
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Strong, isn’t it? In this wake of creation, we have already embarked on the paths of money (fintech), health (healthtech), climate (climatech), agriculture is pop (agtech), governments (GovTech)… And so on, we have been and will continue. But here is the thing… Isn’t there someone missing in this sea of ”techs”? Let’s think… If it is possible to speed up the health system, with its medical protocols; and digitize money, with all the care that must be taken with money, I think – I just think! – that it is possible to bring the thousands of processes in the most diverse spheres of justice to the speed of bytes and megabytes, do you agree? Well then… If you thought of a suit, tie and briefcase, bingo, you are right. Yes, we are talking about the wonderful legal world. |
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Judge standing in the courtroom. |
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In this edition, with all due respect, we will put defense and prosecution side by side, because oral or written arguments are the hallmark of Law Techs, Legal Techs and every platform initiative that reaches the legal universe. |
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Editor’s Note I: Law Techs and Legal Techs are terms often used to describe companies that apply technology to the legal sector, but with nuances in their focus. Law Techs generally refer to startups that develop solutions for a wider audience, including individuals and companies, seeking to facilitate access to justice and legal information. Legal Techs, on the other hand, tend to focus on law firms and legal departments, offering tools to optimize management, productivity and legal services. |
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With the concepts explained, let’s move on to the second instance: the economic one. Because you don’t need to be an honoris causa to realize that paper is one of the main raw materials for this important profession in any democratic state. But it’s not just the paper that draws attention due to its quantity; the figures also have their place of prominence. Future Market Insights brought to life a projection that would make any lawyer raise an eyebrow. According to the consultancy, the global legal technology market is expected to reach US$ 68 billion by 2034. I’ll write it out in full: sixty-eight billion dollars. This is not a leap. It is a double twist when compared to the US$ 29.6 billion recorded in 2024, according to the consultancy. This entire expansion will be driven by Generative Artificial Intelligence, which is AI that has left elementary school. In addition to digital transformation, regulatory changes and the need for efficiency gains, which will complete this stratospheric boost. |
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Judge delivers the verdict in a case. |
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“As legal processes become increasingly automated and digitized, demand for solutions such as contract management, e-discovery, compliance and legal analysis is expected to increase. Companies are investing in secure and scalable LegalTech platforms to ensure they remain at the forefront of a competitive market”, writes the consultancy. There is more. Future Markets Insight adds that the Law Tech sector is “evolving rapidly, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and machine learning”. Is it or is it not something to loosen the tie?!? But this technological “habeas corpus” knows no borders. And if abroad, the process is fast paced, here in Terra Brasilis, it is no different. The “Generative AI Impact Report on Law”, produced by the São Paulo chapter of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-SP), in partnership with Jusbrasil, Trybe and Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade do Rio (Rio Institute of Technology and Society) (ITS-Rio), confirms that 51% of lawyers already use legal AI in their daily activities. Released in February of this year, the survey also shows that AI has been consolidating itself as an important tool for lawyers. In short, instead of wasting time searching the web or court and registry office systems for documents, lawyers put chatbots to work – they don’t even need to hire junior professionals for this anymore, because they are now free to carry out other management tasks. |
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It was with this potential in mind that Curitiba-based Preâmbulo Tech, one of the main legal technology companies in the country, headquartered in the state of Paraná, invested in Cria.AI, a startup specialized in Artificial Intelligence. With an undisclosed value, the investment made in May of this year aims to integrate Cria.AI’s technology with Preâmbulo‘s ERP software, thus strengthening the company’s set of solutions. |
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Editor’s Note II: ERP is a software system that helps organizations optimize and integrate their main business processes into a centralized system. |
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With all due respect, a giant in the legal world is born. Pay attention to the pronunciation of this little word that we have already used at other times in this text, but now is the ideal time for adjustments: “lígal“. Legal in English, my dearest friends. Preâmbulo has been in the market for over 30 years, and its main product is CPJ-3C, an ERP software that includes a complete financial management module integrated with the procedural module, document generator, system task flow manager and the possibility of installation in a cloud system and mobile phone. Cria.AI‘s is here to strengthen these and other Preâmbulo products. In other words, the invested startup’s technology uses a structure with seven layers of Artificial Intelligence to generate legal documents based on data provided by the user. In addition, the platform automatically analyzes legislation, case law and legal arguments, creating structured and well-founded procedural documents. “Today, Intelligence has shortened distances and allowed humans to focus on strategic issues,” says Kazan Costa, CEO of Preâmbulo Office and Preâmbulo Bank, two companies in the Curitiba group. |
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To explain the company’s vision regarding AI, the executive gives an example of what has already happened with other technologies. In the past, the arrival of software made lawyers retire those worn-out agendas and notebooks, full of notes and scribbles of cases. Now, AI has emerged to free lawyers from boring and repetitive tasks, such as writing simple briefs, summarizing huge volumes of documents and, of course, reports. |
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| | Kazan Costa, CEO of Preâmbulo Office (Photo: Courtesy) |
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“The error rate is high when a lawyer is going to summarize a large case, it can be imprecise. AI can summarize and accurately analyze a case and provide the lawyer with a summary of the most important facts. This is the AI’s job, not the entire process,” says Costa. With over six thousand law firms and one thousand legal departments, totaling over 25 thousand system users, Preâmbulo Tech received BRL 10 million in 2020 from the Criatec 3 Fund, managed by KPTL. |
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Straight from Porto Digital |
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Intelivix, a startup based in Porto Digital, in Recife (PE), and specialized in technology for the legal sector, also has AI at the core of its business. It developed the Legys platform to help clients manage large volumes of legal risks quickly and easily. Its system helps analyze data, such as firm performance, judge profiles, trial histories and lawyers’ performance. According to Intelivix, it is the only Law Tech with its own end-to-end technology, from data capture and extraction, through analysis, Artificial Intelligence and jurimetrics. Wait, wait, wait… Jury, what? Jurimetrics. |
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Editor’s Note III: Jurimetrics is a concept that combines statics with the world of Law, with the aim of analyzing patterns, trends and behaviors in the legal field. |
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Operating through the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, which includes the implementation of systems for large clients, Intelivix has used AI to reduce the time spent on manual monitoring of electronic journals by 80% to 90%. “It also allows for the proactive discovery of new procedural opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed and eliminates human errors that would occur when registering and monitoring processes,” says Maurício Carvalho, founder and CEO of Intelivix. |
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For him, what is happening in the legal world is a huge acceleration of new technologies, and those who jump on the bandwagon first have the advantage of sitting at the window. “The fact that we already operate natively in the AI area has allowed us to monitor and incorporate what makes sense for our platform, creating new products quickly and bringing more value and strategic insights to our clients,” says Carvalho. |
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| | Maurício Carvalho, founder and CEO of Intelivix. (Photo: Courtesy) |
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A priori, it seems to be clear that there will be an understanding between technology, legal professionals and the procedural rites inherent to the function. A priori! However, nevertheless, it would be good form to wait for the a posteriori, even if it is pro forma. |
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“The force of law must overcome the law of force” Rui Barbosa |
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Anderson SoaresProfessor at the Institute of Computer Sciences at Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG), one of the founders of the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CEIA) and the Bachelor’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence at the university. |
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Anderson Soares, professor at UFG and co-founder of CEIA (Foto: Divulgação) |
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1) There is a lot of talk about the use of Generative AI in the legal sector. What is your assessment of the current stage of maturity of this technology for application in complex tasks in the area of Law? |
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Regarding Artificial Intelligence in the legal sector, about seven or eight years ago, there was an attempt to (develop) products that performed many tasks. This did not prove to be feasible. But the technological era was different. The legal field is very dependent on what happens in natural language processing, on the ability to process text, and understand unstructured information in text. And, if we look at the scientific field, these advances have happened recently. Basically, a wave began in 2018 and 2019 and intensified in 2022 and 2023. So, now we will have a new technological wave, which is born in science, and which enables the “productization” of this. And what I observe is that there is a new wave of these products called Law Techs. And, instead of being that miraculous solution that solves all your problems, they are arriving in a more fragmented, more specific way, they are more functional, efficient, with good market growth. But at the same time that this is being effective, law firms and legal departments have started to have two or three (Artificial Intelligence) tools. And for a department in a large company, this can be a problem. So, if I want more functionality, will I have to have a fourth system? I think that very soon the market will start to see a certain consolidation of tools, so that we can have a more integrated solution that performs several smaller tasks in the daily life of a legal department or law firm. |
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2) What are the risks and barriers (technical and ethical) that still need to be overcome for the large-scale adoption of AI in the legal area? |
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One of the main risks that I have always seen is the dependence on the collaboration of an entity called a court and, consequently, its branches. This is a risk because, without the collaboration of these entities, the entire chain is obviously affected. I will give an example. The proceedings are public, but the courts can facilitate or hinder access to this information, even if it is public. This has always been a significant risk to me, but I think the current moment is more favorable because the courts themselves are understanding that this is a technological wave that also benefits their activities. As this happens there, the risk of political and opinionated decisions about access is being mitigated, because then you always have the search for efficiency and productivity. And the ethical risks are the risks that any generalist tool has, right? And it would be no different with Artificial Intelligence. You can use a generalist tool for good things and for bad things. It has always been and will always be like this. I like to cite the example of the knife, which changed the history of humanity. It processes food, but it can also be used to kill another person. And that doesn’t mean we stop using it, we stop reaping the benefits that are much greater than the eventual commission of crimes with this piece of equipment that is so essential in everyday life. |
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3) What are the next big trends that we can expect from the union between AI and Law? |
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I understand that we are still in the first wave of technological benefits and products in the legal field. I think it is a sector that is very lacking in technology because the processes are very manual and artisanal. It does not mean that we are going to insert technology into everything, automate everything, but rather that there are bottlenecks and inefficient parts that lack greater effectiveness. And there is a wave now, for example, of Law Techs for jurimetrics. As you can see, we were not even able to compile, in a condensed form, strategic information on legal issues. So, this shows how the grass is still high and how there is still a horizon to be explored. This is the first wave, because technical-scientific viability only emerged in recent years. When something happens in science, there is still a lot of time for innovation to become a product. |
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