AI game plans
As OpenAI and Anthropic follow the SpaceX trajectory and race towards IPOs, their focus is pivoting to the enterprise. Anthropic’s Claude Cowork plugin which tanked tech and legal tech stocks in February ultimately produced a vote of confidence for agentic AI – from investors and SaaS companies, no doubt relieved that Anthropic was looking for partnership, not competition. In the world of GenAI, everybody is upping their game plan.
Shuffle the pack
A successful IPO requires markets to be confident that they are investing in more than an AI trailblazer, which partly explains why OpenAI discontinued its text-to-video app Sora, ending a $1bn deal with Disney. The Wall Street Journal reported that this was not about the inevitable legal liabilities arising from copyright infringement, but rather a strategic decision to ditch what Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s head of AGI development described as “distracting side guests” and free up computing resources for its enterprise products. And OpenAI is also shuffling the pack when it comes to its executive team. Following another massive investment round ($122bn) last Tuesday, on Friday OpenAI announced a major leadership shuffle, with COO Brad Lightcap shifting to a special projects role, overseeing a joint venture with private equity firms to scale enterprise software sales.
Public and media perception is fuelling the race between OpenAI and Anthropic. The fallout of Anthropic’s public spat with the Pentagon over the US military’s use of Claude and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman subsequently posting on X that OpenAI was entering an agreement to work with the US Department of War (replacing Anthropic?) was a sharp shift away from OpenAI towards Anthropic, with (US app store) uninstalls of ChatGPT’s mobile app jumping 295% and downloads of Claude increasing 51%.
Multi-platform and domain specific
For enterprise customers, especially in highly regulated sectors like legal, switching GenAI models isn’t a straightforward quick decision, but the new agreements announced at the end of Q1 saw a clear shift towards a multi-platform approach, as more of the established legal platforms that were already working with OpenAI’s GPT models (Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis among others) announcing MCP (model context protocol) deep integrations with Claude, describing them as partnerships. And in a notable move away from dependence on general-purpose models, Thomson Reuters has announced that it is preparing to launch its own GenAI model, Thomson, built on open-source models and trained on its proprietary legal data and expertise. Thomson will operate inside CoCounsel workflows and improve its contract and legal research capabilities. Is this a pivot towards domain-specific GenAI, as it becomes easier to build bespoke models, or is it Thomson Reuters simply applying the latest developments in GenAI to leverage its huge legal database? Either way, it will be interesting to see if others follow this move.
Game plans
The race for dominance in legal AI also includes public perception, and market leaders are investing in new ways of building visibility and market presence.
Harvey is raising cash at an OpenAI pace, observed Business Insider, and CB Insights’ head of insights Jason Saltzman wrote that Harvey’s $11bn Series F funding round announced last week, together with its early acquisitions, signal where legal AI is going. He highlighted its strategic acquisitions of Hexus and Lume as part of a wider strategy to expand Harvey’s integrations into in-house legal workflows “as it pushes to become the platform where legal work gets routed, executed and embedded across firms and corporate legal teams.” But isn’t this a familiar strategy that is being followed by Legora, and in the mid-market segment by Clio as well? Even before legal AI, large legal tech vendors built practice management systems that interfaced with operations, knowledge and other systems which all used a common data layer.
But other strategies are taking agentic AI into new territory. Harvey’s recruitment drive included lawyers and high-profile technology leads. Legora hired law firm and vendor innovation leads early on, and in March, it made its first acquisition: Canadian agentic AI platform Walter AI, an agent-native legal AI company which enables a single agent to deliver an end-to-end legal workflow. The agentic platforms are adding resources which could enable them to offer legal services directly to clients. But indications are that the underlying strategy is more likely to be similar to Anthropic’s legal plugin – adding relevant knowledge and expertise to partner more closely with their client base rather than compete with it.
And they are extending their reach into legal education. Reuters reports that Harvey and Legora are offering free subscriptions to US law schools, “to win over law students who will soon populate the country’s law firms and corporate legal departments”.
Sporting colours
Brand familiarity is another way to win over customers and Harvey and Legora are breaking new ground, with sports and brand partnerships, following Anthropic’s headline-grabbing marketing campaigns involving major sporting events. Harvey has partnered with Fulham FC and the US Open tennis tournament, and last week announced a multi-year partnership with French football club Paris Saint-Germain. PSG’s legal team will use Harvey’s platform across legal workflows, while Harvey gains high-visibility matchday branding at one of Europe’s biggest football clubs. Earlier this year, Harvey announced a brand partnership with actor Gabriel Macht who played corporate attorney Harvey Specter in Suits, who apparently inspired the company’s name. Legora too has stepped into the sporting arena with a multi-year brand partnership with Swedish golfer Ludvig Åberg who wears Legora’s logo on his sleeve in professional competition.
The strategic direction is clear, the companies that have taken the legal industry by storm over the past couple of years are now looking to secure their position through deep integration and global brand recognition.
Hargora – what if?
I couldn’t resist a brilliant legal tech April Fool. On 1st April, Alex Denne, Reddit legaltech moderator and former head of growth at Genie AI published an announcement that Harvey and Legora had merged to form a new company: Hargora! He built a website and designed an H-star logo, combining Harvey’s initial and Legora’s star. Although this unlikely scenario was received with good humour by both companies, like all good science fiction, it asks a thought-provoking ‘What if?’ With well-funded global brands at the top of the market and the possibility of vibe-coding quick open-source apps for small use cases, there are surely fewer gaps in the market for the next generation of legal AI start-ups.
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Written by Joanna Goodman, tech journalist
Photo credit (Joanna): Sam Mardon
