As the AI market grows into adolescence, its players are finding opportunity in specialized segments. And in emerging tech, that often means verticalization. That’s where AI is now, such as OpenAI’s recent expansion into healthcare. And that’s what Anthropic is now doing in its latest move into law.
Claude for Legal will be an extension of Anthropic’s flagship LLM that zeroes in on law knowledge. Technically, it’s a plugin and a series of connectors – as it often goes with Claude’s desktop variants. Connectors are essentially links and permissions between other apps that you want to talk to each other.
In this case, connectors will plug Claude into software that’s often used by law firms – everything from Docusign to legal databases for knowledge and case law, such as Westlaw. From there, it will be able to do things like search for documents, help prep depositions, draft contracts, and other typical legal tasks.
The other thing Claude for Legal will handle is specialization within the broader legal vertical. Anthropic says it’s designed to work across fields like corporate law, employment law, product law, etc. And greater specialty will result when the above connectors allow Claude to train itself on case law specifics.
The way this could work practically is that Claude for Legal works with a law firm’s existing software to boost productivity, handle rote tasks, and empower lawyers to run faster. This is traditionally the work of paralegals, who represent one of the top professions on the endangered species list from AI disruption.
Ripe for Innovation
Stepping back, one of the things that makes law opportune for AI disruption is the antiquated state of its current processes and technologies. When you combine high-stakes professional services with rusty old systems, it’s a recipe for opportunistic innovation. And that’s what we’re seeing now from Anthropic.
But it wasn’t the first. One of the things that attracted Anthropic to this vertical – besides the broader verticalization dynamics noted above – is the success demonstrated by pure-plays in this segment. For example, AI law startup Harvey has been growing aggressively and carries an $11 billion valuation.
Beyond law, other high-value local verticals will follow, and some are already developing. In addition to OpenAI’s move into healthcare noted above, several players in the Localogyverse are applying AI to sizable verticals such as home services. Opportunities there are amplified by SMB resource constraints.
Effective integrations so far in the SMB world involve functions such as automated lead response, mitigating unanswered calls (a longstanding problem), and responding to reviews. The common element in these areas is busywork that’s often dreaded, neglected, and therefore ripe for automation.
Back to Claude for Legal, it’s available immediately to all paying Claude customers. It’s a matter of installing plugins, establishing connectors, and running with it. This will involve a learning curve for habitually entrenched law firms, but those who do it right will make up that time once up and running.
