{"id":781,"date":"2024-03-29T21:39:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T21:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clio.com\/au\/?p=781"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T05:12:38","slug":"harvey-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clio.com\/au\/blog\/harvey-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey AI Explained (for Lawyers)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you met Harvey (AI)?<\/span><\/p>\n

Every week, another AI tool seems poised to take the legal profession by storm\u2014Harvey AI<\/a>, described as \u201cunprecedented legal AI\u201d, is an especially-exciting offering in law firm AI.<\/p>\n

And, with a recent investment from Open.AI, the creator of ChatGPT, many are wondering what this technology means for the future of law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey AI is still in beta, and time will truly tell what this technology\u2019s impact on the legal industry will be. However, for now, we\u2019ll cover what we know about Harvey AI\u2014and how legal professionals can responsibly explore this new offering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey AI is already available to AU law firms, as evidenced by <\/span> Ashurst<\/a>, described as \u201cunprecedented legal AI\u201d<\/p>\n

Be sure to read our comprehensive guide on AI for lawyers<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What does Harvey AI do?<\/h2>\n

Amongst all these exciting developments, you might be wondering: what does Harvey AI do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Like ChatGPT<\/a>, Harvey AI is built on a version of Open.AI\u2019s GPT AI. Some lawyers try ChatGPT prompts for lawyers<\/a> to experiment with broader applications, but unlike ChatGPT, Harvey AI supports legal work. How? Starting with general internet data from the GPT model, Harvey AI was <\/span>further trained<\/span><\/a> with general legal data (including case law and reference materials). When engaged by a firm, Harvey AI is then trained by the firm\u2019s own work products and templates (much like a new employee\u2019s onboarding when joining a law firm!). The <\/span>right prompts<\/span><\/a> go a long way when it comes to the effectiveness of generative AI.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Open.AI startup fund<\/h2>\n

In December 2022, Open.AI\u2014an artificial intelligence research and development company creating \u201chighly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work\u201d\u2014announced the first four investments from its <\/span>Open.AI Startup Fund<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Open.AI Startup Fund intends to invest $100 million in small, early-stage AI startups \u201cto help AI companies have a profound, positive impact on the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t

Open.AI invests in Harvey AI<\/h2>\n

Harvey AI was among the Open.AI Startup Fund\u2019s first four investments, receiving $5 million from the fund. While Harvey AI\u2019s website provides minimal information about the product\u2019s offerings, Open.AI describes \u201can intuitive interface for all legal workflows through powerful generative language models.\u201d The program assists lawyers with research, drafting, analysis, and communication by harnessing AI capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April of 2023, Harvey AI <\/span>raised $21 million in Series A funding<\/span><\/a> led by Sequoia Capital, and in December 2023 they raised <\/span>$80 million in Series B funding<\/span><\/a> led by Elad Gil and Kleiner Perkins with participation from OpenAI Startup Fund and Sequoia, further bolstering their growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey AI partners with a major law firm<\/h2>\n

In February 2023, Allen & Overy, one of the world\u2019s largest law firms, <\/span>announced its partnership with Harvey AI<\/span><\/a>. Since November 2022, the London-based law firm reported that over 3,500 of their lawyers have already tested Harvey AI by asking 40,000 questions during their day-to-day work. Similarly in June 2024, Ashurst another Global law firm, announced its <\/span>partnership with Harvey AI<\/span><\/a>, providing all Ashurst lawyers and staff, across every practice group, business services function and office, access to Harvey.<\/span><\/p>\n

The results sound promising. As David Wakeling, the head of Allen & Overy\u2019s Markets Innovation Group said: \u201c\u2026I have never seen anything like Harvey \u2026 Harvey can work in multiple languages and across diverse practice areas, delivering unprecedented efficiency and intelligence. In our trial, we saw some amazing results.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Allen & Overy is the first law firm to partner with Harvey AI, it won\u2019t be the last. Harvey AI is working with other law firms to <\/span>develop custom tools<\/span><\/a> and, on March 15, 2023, PwC <\/a><\/span>announced<\/span> a strategic partnership<\/span><\/a> with Harvey AI.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to working with lawyers to help vet and improve the tool, Harvey AI is now looking to hire lawyers to join their team. These lawyers will not act as in-house lawyers for the startup; according to co-founder and CEO Winston Weinberg, they will be doing all sorts of different things in unique, interdisciplinary roles.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t

How AI can help firms (and their clients)<\/h2>\n

The potential benefits of legal AI like Harvey are clear: using AI to assist with research, drafting, and other routine legal tasks could help save law firms time\u2014and cut down on their clients\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n

Technology plays a critical part in law firm success. For example, as we noted in the 2022 Legal Trends Report<\/a>, lawyers using cloud-based legal practice management software were more likely to report:<\/p>\n