Machine learning creates room for continuous business model innovation. One recent summer, Charles Weinstein, CEO of New York City-based accounting firm EisnerAmper, had an epiphany: machine learning could either destroy his business or remake it. A 35-year veteran of the industry, Weinstein sensed that the practice of accounting--issuing financial statements three months after the quarter closes--while still necessary, was losing relevance in the real-time, data-driven economy. So he organized a three-day partner meeting to consider how machine learning capabilities in particular might remake the traditional accounting firm for the digital era, enabling it to help its clients look into the future rather than simply reporting on the past. Weinstein invited a partner in charge of global innovation at a Big Four accounting firm (not a direct competitor) to talk about the moves his firm was making.

How machine learning creates room for continuous business model innovation. A 35-year veteran of the industry, Weinstein sensed that the practice of accounting--issuing financial statements three months after the fact--while still necessary, was losing relevance in the real-time, data-driven economy. So he organized a three-day partner meeting to consider how machine-learning capabilities in particular might remake the traditional accounting firm for the digital era, enabling it to help its clients look into the future rather than simply reporting on the past. Weinstein invited a partner in charge of global innovation at a big-four accounting firm (not a direct competitor) to talk about the moves his firm was making. As the visitor spoke, it became plain to Weinstein that there was little time to waste. "That meeting was a watershed moment; it created a united mindset for the firm around deciding to lead, not follow, when it came to leveraging technology in the accounting space," says Weinstein.

How machine learning creates room for continuous business model innovation. A 35-year veteran of the industry, Weinstein sensed that the practice of accounting--issuing financial statements three months after the fact--while still necessary, was losing relevance in the real-time, data-driven economy. So he organized a three-day partner meeting to consider how machine-learning capabilities in particular might remake the traditional accounting firm for the digital era, enabling it to help its clients look into the future rather than simply reporting on the past. Weinstein invited a partner in charge of global innovation at a big-four accounting firm (not a direct competitor) to talk about the moves his firm was making. As the visitor spoke, it became plain to Weinstein that there was little time to waste. "That meeting was a watershed moment; it created a united mindset for the firm around deciding to lead, not follow, when it came to leveraging technology in the accounting space," says Weinstein.

HMRC's use of AI and big data to gather evidence in tax investigations has led to a 30% drop in property raids, according to law firm Pinsent Masons. The firm explained that HMRC has leveraged sophisticated algorithms and big data sources to gather evidence with greater ease and efficiency than costly and time-consuming property raids. Steven Porter, Partner at Pinsent Masons, said: "HMRC's big brother-style data collection on taxpayers is giving it the material it needs to ramp up its tax investigations and at the same time, is reducing the need for it to actually raid properties." The figure has dropped from 669 property raids in 2016/17 to 471 last year. In particular, tax inspectors have been using the state-of-the-art Connect database, an analytical system worth £80m and designed by BAE Systems, to carry out preliminary investigative work within seconds.

In the summer of 2016, Charles Weinstein, CEO of New York City–based accounting firm EisnerAmper, had an epiphany: Machine learning could either destroy his business or remake it. A 35-year veteran of the industry, Weinstein sensed that the practice of accounting--issuing financial statements three months after the fact--while still necessary, was losing relevance in the real-time, data-driven economy. So he organized a three-day partner meeting to consider how machine-learning capabilities in particular might remake the traditional accounting firm for the digital era, enabling it to help its clients look into the future rather than simply reporting on the past. Weinstein invited a partner in charge of global innovation at a big-four accounting firm (not a direct competitor) to talk about the moves his firm was making. As the visitor spoke, it became plain to Weinstein that there was little time to waste. "That meeting was a watershed moment; it created a united mindset for the firm around deciding to lead, not follow, when it came to leveraging technology in the accounting space," says Weinstein.

Advent is upon us, and the season of overconsumption begins! My wife and I attended our first Christmas party of the year yesterday and the tree and decorations are going up this evening, in a solid attempt to be better organised this year! Whilst many of us might be starting to ease off for Christmas now, the LawTech sector has had another busy week. Legal Futures' Dan Bindman has written a great in depth piece on the Ailira chatbot that we mentioned in last weeks LawTech Review. Artificial Intelligence may help you win your next court case!

Linklaters, where Singapore-based Sophie Mathur, a firm Partner and global co-head of innovation has been helping the firm to adopt AI, including a program dedicated to reading, analyzing and reporting on large amounts of documentation without reference to practice area. MinterEllison, where Partner and innovation leader Andrew Cunningham is helping the firm innovate across a range of areas including AI. Baker & McKenzie -- In an email interview for this article, Sydney-based Partner Adrian Lawrence, who is strongly engaged in the firm's innovation strategies explained that: "AI is an increasingly important tool in the arsenal of any law firm, in particular for large-scale matters which involve significant quantities of both structured and unstructured data, such as large litigation matters and major M&A transactions. Given these larger matters tend to be undertaken by BigLaw, rather than NewLaw, my expectation is that BigLaw is likely to be more advanced with use of AI solutions at this stage. The majority of commentators see AI as an enhancement of existing capabilities, allowing services to be provided more efficiently and effectively, rather than a replacement of traditional client-facing legal services. There will always be an important role for the experience and human judgment which is an inherent part of good legal advice."

Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing to the point where it could be considered negligent not to use it to automate legal processes, the premier international conference on the topic heard yesterday. A pre-conference workshop on AI and legal practice heard that technologies are already being deployed. Despite the hype, there is real substance here,' Dan Rubins, co-founder of Silicon Valley-based Legal Robot said. The workshop was opened by David Halliwell, director of knowledge and innovation at interrnational firm Pinsent Masons, whose innovation team includes data scientists, knowledge and process engineers and machine learning experts. 'Lawyers have expectations that AI is magic fairy dust you can sprinkle onto work.

A study by Deloitte has suggested that technology is already leading to job losses in the UK legal sector, and some 114,000 jobs could be automated within 20 years. Professor Richard Susskind, a technology consultant and co-author of The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, predicts unprecedented upheaval in a profession where the working practices of some lawyers and judges have changed little since the time of Charles Dickens. "One question lurking in all this is whether someone can come in and do to law what Amazon did to bookselling," he says. "We won't see anything as dramatic, but we will see incremental transformations in areas like the way documents are reviewed and the way legal risk is assessed." Big law firms are pouring money into AI as a way of automating tasks traditionally undertaken by junior lawyers.

Its traditional aversion to risk has meant the legal profession has not been in the vanguard of new technology. But it is seen as ripe for disruption -- a view that is based not least on pressure from tech-savvy corporate clients questioning the size of their legal bills and wanting to reduce risk. As more law firms become familiar with terms such as machine learning and data mining, they are creating tech-focused jobs like "head of research and development" or hiring coders or artificial intelligence (AI) experts. Change is being driven not only by demand from clients but also by competition from accounting firms, which have begun to offer legal services and to use technology to do routine work. "Lawtech" start-ups, often set up by ex-lawyers and so-called because they use technology to streamline or automate routine aspects of legal work, are a threat too.