Linklaters rolls out Laila, the firm’s upgraded chatbot

Linklaters rolls out Laila, an upgraded version of the GenAI chatbot it first launched in March 2023. The upgrade follows impressive take up and engagement across the firm - 2,500 active users are now generating 2,600+ queries a day.

Laila has been built entirely in-house by Linklaters’ software development team, using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI infrastructure, and has provided a platform for people to get hands on experience of the technology and responsibly explore use cases for the tech. All prompts and responses are kept within a secure Linklaters-controlled environment.

Initial analysis of the first 6 months use of the chatbot showed that usage was global, with prompts being inputted in multiple different languages and from all of our offices across the platform. Whilst usage is largely consistent there are hotspots of use, including in Singapore, Paris, Frankfurt and London. The analysis has also revealed that the iterative Q&A functionality is consistently used and that users of the chatbot cover both practice areas and business teams.

The Linklaters software development team have worked with Microsoft to regularly update the Linklaters chatbot when new versions of ChatGPT were launched. Version 2 reflects specific features requested by the practice – including being able to upload longer documents, being able to run longer prompts and outputs, as well as accessing live results from the internet via Bing.

As part of the upgrade process the firm held a naming competition which saw over 500 suggestions submitted in a 2-week window. The result is Laila.

Thomas Quoroll, Partner, GenAI Experimentation Working Group:
When GenAI is utilised effectively, it can boost efficiency and provide more time for strategic thinking. It’s been great to see the engagement we’ve had – from trainee through to partners using the Chatbot and other proof of concepts to test where GenAI could add the most value to their work.

Su Clarke, Head of Software Development & Testing at Linklaters:
It is clear that when used correctly, this technology could be transformational for our industry. AI allows us to assist our clients more effectively and our knowledge and learnings of its application is something we will continue to share with them.”

The firm has a long history of trialling and implementing new technologies and GenAI is no different. Linklaters has been using AI and machine learning tools in its technology stack since 2018 and updated its policy at the start of the year to reflect the new risks and compliance responsibilities posed by GenAI. Other proof of concepts currently in progress include a global pilot of CoCounsel and a collaboration with Kin & Karta and Google’s Cloud platform to test knowledge search.

Find out more about the firm’s approach to GenAI here: Our approach to Generative AI (linklaters.com)