Turning Speech Into Insights – Artificial Lawyer

If you’ve watched a Presidential debate, or even the Olympics, with closed captions, then it’s quite possible that you’ve already seen Verbit at work, a company focused on accurately turning speech into text and then providing additional tools to analyse that data. Artificial Lawyer heard from JP Son, Chief Legal Officer, and Matan Barak, Director of Product Management & Head of Legal Product, about its work in our sector – which now goes far beyond transcription.

Can you please remind the readers how it all got started?

Verbit was founded in 2017 on the insight that attorneys were spending too much time and money on inaccurate transcripts – so our technology is uniquely trained on the language of ‘speech intensive’ industries, like law, education, and entertainment.

Verbit became a leader in supporting court reporting agencies, and quickly expanded to become one of the world’s largest transcription and captioning companies. If you’re watching a major event with captions on, there’s a sizable chance those are Verbit-generated.

The advent of GenAI opened the door to use our speech recognition technology to provide transformative value to our customers. Depositions were the perfect opportunity because of our capabilities in speaker identification, case-specific fine-tuning, and real-time transcription – which meant we could provide in-the-moment insights for litigators like inconsistency detection in testimony.

The large majority of legal tech supports discovery and case prep and is focused on document-based workflows. Verbit is one of the only companies focused on using AI to strengthen case strategy during the deposition. 

Where are you today? How much have you expanded?

We launched Legal Visor earlier this year, and we are currently in discussions with dozens of firms and other potential partners. The momentum has been fantastic.

We continue to make progress in the solution features, and plan to release a major update in the next few weeks, including automatic speaker identification, improved accuracy on inconsistency recognition, and goals tracking.

GenAI changes everything where text is involved, how much has it changed what Verbit can now offer?

GenAI opens up a huge world of possibility across our entire offering because it enables us to not only capture speech, but also understand and apply insights seamlessly into customers’ existing workflows. In 2024, we introduced a new automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology called Captivate that underlies all our products, which created a powerful feedback loop to continuously refine models and accurately capture the nuances of a customer’s unique content world. 

How can we show lawyers that transcription and related tasks can provide a lot more value than one might expect?

Ultimately, it’s all about turning static text into dynamic, actionable intelligence. Tools like Legal Visor show lawyers how transcription, powered by AI, can deliver real-time insights, identify crucial information, and streamline workflow – making it a strategic asset, not just a record.

Where do you see Verbit heading now, as the legal tech landscape rapidly changes?

We are focused on leveraging our unique AI and speech expertise to build intelligent solutions that transform legal workflows. Building on Legal Visor, we aim to be a leading provider of AI-powered intelligence from audio and text data in the evolving legaltech landscape.

Thanks to both of you and look forward to seeing the company’s continued growth.

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You can find more about Verbit here.

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Legal Innovators California conference, San Francisco, June 11 + 12

If you’re interested in the cutting edge of legal AI and innovation – and where we are all heading – then come along to Legal Innovators California, in San Francisco, June 11 and 12, where speakers from the leading law firms, inhouse teams, and tech companies will be sharing their insights and experiences as to what is really happening.

We already have an incredible roster of companies to hear from. This includes: &AI, Legora, Harvey, StructureFlow, Ivo, Flatiron Law Group, PointOne, Centari, LexisNexis, eBrevia, Legatics, Knowable, Draftwise, newcode.AI, Riskaway, Aracor, SimpleClosure and more.

Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, Baker McKenzie, Gunderson, Ropes & Grey, A&O Shearman and many other leading law firms will also be taking part. 

See you all there!

More information and tickets here.

P.S. there will also be a Legal Innovators New York conference this November 19 + 20 !  See here.