Top legal firm adopts pioneering AI tech to improve client relations

A top 50 legal firm with offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow is embracing pioneering artificial intelligence technology to improve its client relations.

Shoosmiths will work with MyCustomerLens, whose client listening platform will provide it with real-time client insights and allow it to make “quicker and more responsive decisions”. Voted Law Firm of the Year in 2022 and employing more than 1,000 lawyers, Shoosmiths will use the AI tech across its offices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The firm has made the investment to centralise client feedback from departments and regional offices in a single, secure location, allowing it to make more agile decisions, according to senior client culture manager, Aileen Leahy. Feedback – good, bad and neutral – will be reported back to senior decision makers and acted upon, the firm insisted.

Leahy said: “We needed a solution that allowed us to combine all these various feedback channels into one single repository, ensuring that all kinds of client feedback is captured centrally. The platform offers us the flexibility we need to make the switch from a manual process to allowing tech to do the job for us – resulting in a number of efficiencies along the way and a deeper level of insight than we can produce manually.”

She added: “Reporting and dashboards were also of huge interest to us – we have a number of audiences who require differing levels of view on client feedback. The platform gives us the chance to provide clients with a way to offer us proactive feedback too, which was also incredibly attractive to us.”

Shoosmiths chief executive David Jackson said: “Listening to our clients and being able to further anticipate their needs is what sets us apart from our competitors. Our focus on what we do well, and our commitment to doing it even better, means we go above and beyond to deliver excellence for ourselves and our clients.”

MyCustomerLens’ platform is said to create a “single source of truth” from customer interviews, surveys, feedback forms, operational data and unsolicited verbal and email comments. The proprietary software then uses AI to identify themes and trends and to create “heat maps” and “word clouds”, which show current experiences and future needs at all stages of the client relationship process.

The tech outfit’s chief executive Paul Roberts, who has 25 years of commercial experience, having worked in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, said: “We are excited and honoured to be working with a forward-looking firm like Shoosmiths, who are so passionate about client experience and keen to innovate their client listening to stay ahead.”

Paul Roberts, chief executive of MyCustomerLens.

Big Tech - dominated by the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook-owner Meta - is banking on a widespread acceptance of machine-based intelligence and autonomy. However, amid the clamour to roll out AI, Tesla boss Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and hundreds of tech experts recently signed an open letter to the Future of Life Institute warning of the potential risks associated with the technology, saying the race to develop AI systems risks spiralling out of control.