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International law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has been nominated for an award at the 2024 FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe, with the firm recognised for one of its generative AI tools, iWomble.
Shortlisted in the 'Innovation in generative AI tools' category, iWomble is the firm's internal chatbot powered by Generative AI which allows people to securely ask a plain English question and get an answer directly from the latest version of the relevant internal policy or procedure. The innovation turns a previously manual process into a fully automated one using cutting edge technology.
Sam Dixon, partner and chief innovation officer at WBD, led on the creation and implementation of iWomble. He commented:
"Finding answers to questions about our internal processes can be challenging. Whilst everything is readily accessible, it can take time to remember where things are and then to work out which policy is most relevant to your question; especially if your question spans multiple policy areas. As a result, these questions are often addressed by asking multiple people. This approach is slow and uses significant resource which could be more productively deployed on other tasks. iWomble makes the process much easier, saving time and resources."
iWomble is part of WBD's wider strategy to leverage the power of AI to enhance its client service delivery and internal efficiency. Additional modules beyond policies and procedures are in development and a wide range of pilots of AI tools is underway.
The FT Innovative Lawyers Awards celebrate the most innovative legal work in Europe and recognise the law firms and legal service providers that are driving change in the industry. The awards ceremony takes place on 12 September at the Natural History Museum, London.
