Lets face it: document management systems are not very smart. Sure, DMS systems have made major strides in recent years in search, sharing, and ease of use. But when it comes right down to it, a DMS system is primarily a static repository where law firms store their documents and emails.

But what if you could sprinkle some intelligence into your DMS system? What if it could understand your documents and more intuitively organize them? What if it could extract and analyze key portions of documents and relate them to particular practice groups or use cases?

When I first learned that DMS company iManage had acquired U.K.-based artificial intelligence company RAVN Systems, it was for me an Aha! moment. How perfect, I thought. The marriage of document management and artificial intelligence could well change how we think about both technologies, turning DMS systems from static repositories to active law-practice tools and driving mainstream acceptance and appreciation of AI in legal.

Last week, I had the opportunity to discuss the acquisition with Sandeep Joshi, iManages vice president, business and corporate development. I asked him what he thinks the integration of AI technology will mean for document management.

There is the ability now to move this technology from the back room to the front and center of what lawyers do on a day-to-day basis, Joshi said. The leap in productivity well see because of this will look like a hockey stick curve.

I also asked Joshi if he thought the integration of RAVNs technology into a mainstream application such as iManage which counts 2,200 law firms and corporate legal departments as customers would drive broader adoption of AI in the legal industry.

It will, he said, but only if the technology is used to address real business problems the legal industry is facing, such as the pressure on both legal departments and their clients to reduce costs. We have to talk in terms of actual business problems and use cases that this technology can solve.

By way of example, Joshi cites the case earlier this year in which a team of seven investigators in the U.K. governments Serious Fraud Office, using RAVNs technology, was able to sift through 30 million documents at a rate of 60,000 a day to uncover large-scale bribery and corruption involving Rolls-Royce.

iManage has identified four capabilities RAVNs integration will provide for its customers:

What AI brings to the table is the ability to light up all this content, to make our customers more content-aware, Joshi said.

Surprisingly, the timetable for implementing this integration is short, and the first stages will be completed and announced within a matter of weeks. This is because iManage and RAVN had already been working together and some integration had already been implemented.

Coincidentally, the two companies share a common past. Before founding RAVN in 2010, its top executives all worked at the former Autonomy, which at the time also owned iManage. In 2011, HP acquired Autonomy and, with it, iManage. But after the Autonomy acquisition turned into a fiasco for HP, iManages leadership was able to buy out the business in 2015 and restore its original cofounders to the helm.

When iManage separated from HP, it had 155 employees. Through growth and the acquisition of RAVNs 50 employees, iManage is now at 375 people.

We view this as the start of an incredible journey, Joshi said. In the coming months and years, we have the ability to really move the pace of productivity gains.

Seems that every conversation about AI in law moves invariably to the question of robots replacing lawyers. Joshi said lawyers should view AI not as a competitor, but as a competitive advantage.

The interesting thing here is the ability to automate the boring stuff, he said. Lawyers go to law school to help their clients by providing legal advice. What this tech does is automate the routine, boring stuff. This will actually speed up the work of lawyers. Many of our large law firm customers view this as a competitive advantage.

This is one of those stories that has implications beyond these two companies and their customers. Document management is a technology that many lawyers know and understand. AI is still technology that many lawyers fear and dont understand. By merging the two technologies, lawyers will see the power of AI to as Joshi said light up all that content. That will be a major step forward in making artificial intelligence a no-brainer.

Robert Ambrogiis aMassachusetts lawyerand journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blogLawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of theCollege of Law Practice Managementand an inauguralFastcase 50honoree. He can be reached by email atambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him onTwitter(@BobAmbrogi).

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Why the iManage Acquisition Of AI Company RAVN Is Something To Crow About - Above the Law